Victory Parade

May 8, 1945

AYE, ring the bells, and blow the horns, and wave the . banners high, (But do you mind if some of us just sit here, quietly by?) The ticker tapes are falling in the city streets like rain. (The wind is blowing sand across the mounds at Alamein).

Here come the bands, with majorettes responding to the cheers. (A boy is looking at his sleeve and wink back the tears.) “What shall we wear to dance to-night?

Let’s get some fancy things.” (She’s just a girl—the one in black—they sent her back his wings.) We won a brilliant battle, and we fought a gorgeous fight. (The ghosts beneath the Bering Sea are bitter cold to-night.) “Don’t get excited now, to-day, when all the flags are flying!”

(That woman with the Gold Star pin. I think I saw her crying.) “So Hitler thought that he could fight!

We had to show him how!” (The blood and tears and toil and sweat have been forgotten now.) “Let’s go and eat and drink until we’re positively filled!” (Tarawa was the place, I think, they said that he was killed.) “Let’s move along; we can’t stay he.re till all the marchers pass.” (That fellow with the ribbons on—his eyes were made of glass.) Yes, ring the bells, and blow the horns, and wave the banners high. (But do you mind if some of us just sit here, quietly by?)

-By Major Howard N. Simpson, M.C.

Mr. Robert Bruce, formerly of New Hebrides, who did good service on small boats in Queensland-New Guinea waters in 1943-4, is now residing in Melbourne.