South Yorkshire Times, March 1945
Bus was labelled “Mexborough”
Surprise for South Yorkshireman in India
*Three very tired and dusty air men on a remote Bengal road blinked in amazement. They had reason to. Plough on its way between the bullock carts through ankle deep dust came a real motor bus. The astonishment changed to incredulity. Was it a mirage? The destination board read ‘Mexborough’.
Very homesick
Hardly believing in our eyes (writes L.A.C. P. A. Reel of the Cresent, Conanby, Conisbrough) but making sure our topees were in the accustomed places, we piled on board, feeling very, very homesick.
We plied the driver with questions but apart from creating a false impression that we wanted to buy the bus we got no further. He really got down to business.
Twirling expertly through the miscellaneous stream of traffic the driver gave us the vehicles pedigree by instalments, punctuated with devastating blast on an ancient horn.
What we really want to know was how the vehicle got there. He didn’t know. A bus was a bus. If it came from the North Pole he really wasn’t interested.
The depot staff were more enlightened. The bus had been shipped out with the name of well-known South Yorkshire companies still showing faintly under its new coat of paint and had been pressed into service to ease the transportation situation. Further investigations revealed other interesting destinations: “Conisbrough, Doncaster, Balby.”
The destinations change nightly depending on who reaches the bus first – and of course upon his size! That contractor still can’t figure out why particular bus should be so popular
*the three airmen were L.A.C. Peel from Conisbrough, A/C Lewis from Mexborough and Sgt T.A. Jefferson of South Elmsall.