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Pinocchio Hymn to the Dead

The first ‘Company’ of the Australian army to enter Timor in WW2 were known as ‘The Double Reds’ and ‘Sparrow Force’. When one of the members of ‘Sparrow Force’ – Archie Campbell, wrote his memoirs he titled the book ‘The Double Reds of Timor’. This is a poem someone in the Sparrow force wrote and titled Pinocchio – Hymn To The Dead that was published in ‘The Double Reds of Timor’.

Stand to your glasses steady,
This world is a world of lies,
Here’s a toast to the dead already,
And here’s to the next man to die
.

Pinocchio was the nickname of one of the Double Reds who was the first to die, on the 20th February 1942.

Pinocchio is the title of an English moral tale about truth telling, whose chief character carries the same name. Pinnochio has a long nose that grows every time he tells a lie.


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One Response to “Pinocchio Hymn to the Dead”

  1. […] and the geography fits. The Japanese deaths are another matter. For this I refer you to the Hymn to Pinnochio written by one of the members of Sparrow […]