WILD REJOICING

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 22606, 10 May 1945, Page 5

WILD REJOICING

PEOPLE OF MOSCOW RESERVE ABANDONED ALLIED OFFICERS TOSSED (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) (Received May 10, 1 p.m.) LONDON, May 9 The Russians have really let themselves go, reports the British United Press Moscow correspondent. Moscow has never seen a celebration like that at present going on. Crowds last night abandoned all reserve and went mad. They mobbed cars carrying British and American officers, hoisted the occupants out and tossed, them in the high air. The officers were at last lowered to the ground, where they joined hands and formed huge rings. Russians danced around singing national songs. When the British officers broke out with “Tipperary” the crowd enthusiastically roared approval. Great cheering crowds gathered in front of the British and Allied Embassies. Rockets lit up the sky as the celebrations were intensified to fever pitch—and the real show has yet to come. Newspapers, appearing hours after the usual publication times, splashed the news of capitulation across their front pages in a massive kind of type never previously used. The Pravda headline was: “Hitlerite Germany is Smashed.” A high Russian- general told the correspondent that Russia had lost between 12,000,000 and 15,000,000 dead in the struggle which ended with Germany’s capitulation. Half of these were civilians. “There were occasions,” said the general, “when we had to lose about 500,000 men at a time to save the army itself.” Parisians stayed up rejoicing all night and were still celebrating the victory at dawn, state agency correspondents in Paris. French and American troops held combined victory parades at several places.