BELFAST RB BOOKLET 2020 - Flipbook - Page 6
Ci t y of Belf ast Grand Bl ack Chapt er - Dem onst rat i on Bookl et 2020
FROM A PROLOGUE OF WAR TO AN EPILOGUE IN VICTORY
Welcome Sir Knights to this year’s annual Demonstration Booklet in what promises to be a memorable
year as folk the world over will celebrate with pride, and in utmost gratitude give thanks to the Almighty,
during the 75th Anniversary date since VE Day, and the final conclusion to the prologue for war in Europe
which ended with an epilogue in victory and Japan's surrender (VJ) on 2nd September 1945.
The prayers of our forebearers back then
was for a safe return of their loved ones and
surely in the hearts and minds of those who
made it through the torment of six years of
combat, then the sighting of the White Cliffs of
Dover in its majestic glory, as they crossed
the channel on their way home from the
Battlefields of France, would have been the
culmination of their victorious epilogue.
That glorious image would have been the
defining moment when all of them soon
realised, undoubtedly that each had, both endured and survived, the atrocities of six years of
horrific and bloody combat against the embodiment of evil in the Third Reich; a purely villianess
regime whose sole and total objective was to ensure a state of post-war continental Nazi-Germany
hegemony; to be achieved by the expansion of the territorial base of the German State itself,
combined with the political and economic domination of the rest of Europe and then onward to an
eventual, total global subjugation.
It would take the liberation of Europe to make the
darkness of the gas chambers visible but by then, two
out of every three European Jews; men, women,
children and infants (right) had been systematically
murdered and those who survived, did so, barely.
So on VE Day, May 8th, 1945 and with many death
camps revealed, the world over was finally able to
witness that Hitler had in fact done exactly what
he said over and over again, he would do.
Just prior to that memorable May date, General
Dwight Eisenhower, as Supreme Commander of the
Allied Expeditionary Force (AEF) in Europe, was taken to one of the Nazi concentration camps at Ohrdruf
Nord near Gotha in Germany; the first one liberated by the US 4th Armoured Division on April 4th.
Literally it was a slaughterhouse, stinking of death with three thousand or more naked and emaciated
corpses barely in or on the ground rotting, with lice crawling over them. With his face frozen white,
Eisenhower had to force himself to examine every nook and cranny of that horrific German internment
camp and later wrote of his experience on entering: 'I never dreamed that such cruelty, bestiality, and
savagery could really exist in this world! It was horrible.' Soon after, the future 34th President of the
United States ordered every nearby army unit to tour Ohrdruf Nord, stating: 'we are told that we don't
know what we are fighting for; now at least, the world will know what we have been fighting
against.' Indeed the recent newspaper story of east Belfast centenarian, Brother Teddy Dixon (LOL
242), who was one of first platoon soldiers to later liberate the notorious Dachau Camp on April 29th,
added personal testimony to the horrendous treatment inflicted on those unfortunate captives.
No doubt throughout this commemorative year since the war ended in 1945 many of those inspirational
songs of yester-year, with their well-known and unforgettable lyrics, will be loudly rendered across our
land at many events, not only in respectful enjoyment and merriment but moreso, in utmost remembrance
of those many valorous and brave souls who unfortunately did not return.
Because of their gallant deeds, the bluebirds of freedom DO fly over the White Cliffs of Dover, just
you look and see; and that is why we MUST never, ever forget. S/Knt Ed Spence, Interim Convenor
IN MEMORY OF THE FALLEN - 4 - AND THE FUTURE OF THE LIVING