TATTOO THRILLS

Hokitika Guardian, 30 July 1926, Page 1

TATTOO THRILLS

LONDON, June 4

Princess Beatrice and Princess Inrrrid of Sweden were among the 30,000 spectators at Rush moor arena, who last night watched the Aldershot Tattoo m tho brilliant beams of twenty searchlights. For two hours tho Tattoo ran, from the. “First Post” to the evening hymn, “The Lay Thou Gavest, Lord is Ended,” sung just before midnight by all the great assembly. No sooner had a vision of the Battle of Hastings shown Harold and his Saxons slaughtered in 1066 by Norman William with his horse and foot, than Henry V. and his half-starved army jumped tho scene to 1415 and the destruction effected by that gallant little fol-ce at the Battle of Agincourt. BALACLAVA AGAIN.

Then time took another leap to 1854 and the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava. To the final scene of battle, no date was allotted, for the spectacle was that of modern, tin-liatted British troops advancing against an Eastern fort from which machine-guns spat death, while overhead, enemy aeroplanes dropped bombs on the tiny British detachment'. HISTORY IN A HURRY. Fortune, however, favoured the weaker force. A wireless S.O.S* from tho British company brought a motordespatch rider with promise of aid, and fast on his heels came infantry, pack artillery, field-guns mounted on caterpillar tractors, Bristol fighters overhead, and last, hut not least, gigantic tanks. None of tho old Somme five-miles-an-liour tanks were these, for 25 miles an hour was about their average speed as they roared across the arena belching forth bullets and three-pound shells.

History in this military panorama of tlie ages is speeded with a vengeance, for only forty minutes, elapsed between the beginning of the battle in 106 G and tlie end of the engagement, which is fought in an unknown year in the 20th. century. There is more than war: however, in the Tattoo. For instance, there is music by Wagner, Verdi, Sullivan and others played by a band of more than 1,000 instrumentalists, marvellous evolutions in the darkness by torchbearing Grenadiers, calls and marches by massed buglers, musical marches with drums and fifes, hair-raising feats by six-horsed guns, echo bands and choristers. ACCOMMODATION FOR 60,000.

The tattoo is to be repeated nightly until Saturday, when the King and Queen have promised to be present. There is accommodation in the various enclosures for 60,000 persons, most of it in the open air. One-third of this open-air space is reserved for purchasers of 2s 6d tickets, and the remainder for those who pay Is. In tlie covered grand stands there are boxes and high-er-priced reserved seats, but save for an odd seat here and there all have been hooked for some weeks past. The motor parks near the Long Yalley cover thousands of acres. The charges for parking range from 2s 6d to 10s.