CORVETTE HEROES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 60, 13 March 1943, Page 3

CORVETTE HEROES

WELCOMED AT AUCKLAND (P.A.) Auckland, March 12. Along Queen Street, lined with their fellow-countrymen and Allied servicemen, the gallant crew of the New Zealand corvette mainly responsible for the; sinking of the Japanese submarine’off Guadalcanal- (Solomons), marched in honour to the Auckland Town Hall. Flags flew about them and in their ears, which so recently rang with the tumult of battle, there was now only the cheers and applause of an admiring city. These men, headed by LieutenantCommander Bridson, came frohi many parts of New Zealand, but the cheers they heard to-day were the cheers of home. Later at an official luncheon they heard words of praise from the Government and city, but in the warmth of the welcome expressed along the route to the hall the greatest honour had been done. To-day’s scene was reminiscent of the tumultous reception to the company of Achilles which had marched along Queen Street under similar circumstances after their honourable part in the River Plate battle. It was a parade, but there was only a military band in front to lend it the tinsel and show of such an occasion. These men—trim, bronzed, and firm-step-ping—were fighting men of the Navy. Not by a movement of a muscle did they show they were conscious of admiration.

In this lack of show they were more impressive, but in their passing the crowd saw a comparatively small parade of the might of Britain, the growing power of the Allies, and the stuff of victory.