Through streets ringing with cheers the 760 men marched to the Guildhall to receive the City's tribute to their part in the defeat of the Graf Spee.
Londoners turned out in thousands to show their admiration of the sailors. Long before the men arrived the streets along the route of the procession were a-flutter with flags, and people were beginning to take up vantage points.
Outside Waterloo Station many extra police were on duty to help control the spectators. School children predominated in the crowd, and many soldiers—Canadian as well as British—waited to cheer the sailors.
Many women recognized their husbands and called out their names. Soldiers, newly arrived on leave from France stood on their packs to get a better view and hoisted their steel helmets on their rifles for want of flags to wave.
To the strains of "Home Sweet Home" the men marched in triumph past Big Ben. In Parliament Square thousands had gathered, and when the sound of cheering came faintly over the Thames they rushed into the roadway, leaving only a narrow channel for the procession.
Showers of confetti and streamers were flung from the windows of buildings overlooking the route. Shouts of "Up the Navy" came from soldiers and airmen in the crowd, and veterans of the last war, wearing medals, joined in the cheering.
(Continued on' page 8, col. 3)
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.