page 739

The End and the Continuation

And so the story ends. It had a sequel in Korea in the 195^OS,⁹ and a further sequel is at present (February 1966) unfolding in Vietnam.

Men who once belonged to the 2nd New Zealand Divisional Artillery assemble from time to time for reunions. When they do their memories revive the drama of the parachute landings in Crete, or Bofors fire on diving Stukas at Alam Nayil, or the tense vividness of an anti-tank action—the all-consuming concentration of effort when every shot must count. Their memories paint cameos of men in various postures serving the guns by night as the streaking flashes exposed them. They reawaken the lightning and thunder of the Alamein barrage, the echoing and re-echoing of guns going off and shells exploding in the shadow of Olympus or Montecassino, and the deafening, earth-shaking hours of the great bombardments on the way to the Po. Peacetime seems quieter to gunners than it does to other people.