Evening star., 1946-06-09
Millions Of britons
Throng London for
..
Victory Celebration
BY the Associoied Press

LONDON, June 8.-Britons. over
flowing by the millions into London,
celebrated the empires formal Vic
tory Day today with the biggest
jubilee since the accession to the
throne of King George vi.
The foremost spectacle-a nine
mile long procession of military
might and civilian defense typify-
ing Allied unity in the war-drew
ovations from the great throngs for
the royal family, members of the
Labor government, Winston Church
i'll, combat commanders and plain
fighting men and women.
The unity of the occasion was
marred, however, by the absence of
official Soviet, Yugoslav and Polish
participation. Those governments
had said earlier that they would
not send contingents.
But small group of Polish air.
men marched on its own with the
Raj and the flags of Russia, Yugo-
slavia and Poland few with those Of
other Allied nations along the Mall.
u. S. Flyers in Parade.
Small detachments of American
airborne troops, bluejackets and
marines marched in the procession
and a handful of American flyers
led the air forces of other nations.
Gen. Joseph T. McNarney, Admiral
H. Kent Hewitt and Brig. Gen.
F.. A. Hart, representing the United
States Army and Marines, led the
motorcade of Allied commanders.
A huge gathering of people from
every part of the kingdom held fast
for hours of tedious waiting from a
cool, cloudy dawn through two
hours of the parade itself, and
broke up shortly after pm. in a
steady rain. The celebration con-
tinued tonight with a program of
fireworks, a water spectacle and
Illumination of historic buildings.
The night fireworks display gave
the city great brilliance Crowds
assembled in the rain-drenched
Mall, and the King, Queen, and two
Princesses appeared on balcony
of Buckingham Palace to acknoWl
edge their cheers. A great w"
formed by searchlights lighted the
sky over the palace.
More than 1000 casualties were
reported by hospitals and police be-
tween 6 am. and 2 pm, most of
them fainting cases but IS were
described as more serious.
This, along with the absence of
generally sustained enthusiasm, was
taken as indicating the strain and
depletion caused by the war. A
British army officer remarked that
"a lot of them apparently think it
is not quite proper to let themselves
60"
Loud Cheers for Montgomery.
But there was Spontaneity in the
cheers of the crowd. Some of the
loudest cheers were for Field Mar
shall Lord Montgomery. the domin-
ion and colonial troops, the Wom-
ems Land Army, air raid personnel,
farmers and miners.
A bulky bobby, shepherding young
and old, said: They queued all
yesterday for bread and potatoes
They queued all night for this.
They'd queue for anything that cost
them nothing
The Cockney mother of four chill
dren put it less cynically:
I'VE were here for the bombings,
the doodles and rockets. We might
as well be here for this, too. There
won't be another one for long
time, not like this one
Il miss the Yanks, don't you?"
said girl clinging to the arm of
her recently y-demobilized husband
Yes he replied, they were fun
and were we glad to get their help"
After the end of the marching
column had passed, the King and
Queen remained several minutes
watching the finish of the show
300 RAF aircraft roaring over low
in final salute-While band played
''There'll Always Be An England"