''They were still taking off from the fields where they lived on that green-grassed aircraft carrier that they called England, when we saw the first of them.
''Shining, bright and beautiful, because they had scraped the invasion paint by then, or maybe they had not.
My memory is not exact about this part.
''Anyway, Daughter, you could see the line of them going back toward the east further than you could see.
It was like a great train.
They were high in the sky and never more beautiful.
I told my S-2 that we should call them the Valhalla Express.
Are you tired of it?''
''No.
I can see the Valhalla Express.
We never saw it in such numbers.
But we saw it.
Many times.''
''We were back two thousand yards from where we were to take off from.
You know what two thousand yards is, Daughter, in a war when you are attacking?''
''No.
How could I?''
''Then the front part of the Valhalla Express dropped coloured smoke and turned and went home.
This smoke was dropped accurately, and clearly showed the target which was the Kraut positions.
They were good positions and it might have been impossible to move him out of them without something mighty and picturesque such as we were experiencing.
''Then, Daughter, the next sections of the Valhalla express dropped everything in the world on the Krauts and where they lived and worked to hold us up.
Later it looked as though all of the earth had erupted and the prisoners that we took shook as a man shakes when his malaria hits him.
They were very brave boys from the Sixth Parachute Division and they all shook and could not control it though they tried.
''So you can see it was a good bombing.
Just the thing we always need in this life. Make them tremble in the fear of justice and of might.
''So then daughter, not to bore you, the wind was from the east and the smoke began to blow back in our direction.
The heavies were bombing on the smoke line and the smoke line was now over us.
Therefore they bombed us the same as they had bombed the Krauts.
First it was the heavies, and no one need ever worry about hell who was there that day.
Then, to really make the breakthrough good and to leave as few people as possible on either side, the mediums came over and bombed who was left.
Then we made the break-through as soon as the Valhalla Express had gone home, stretching in its beauty and its majesty from that part of France to all over England.''
If a man has a conscience, the Colonel thought, he might think about air-power some time.
''Give me a glass of that Valpolicella,'' the Colonel said, and remembered to add, ''please.'' ''Excuse me,'' he said. ''Be comfortable, honey dog, please.
You asked me to tell you.''
''I'm not your honey dog.
That must be someone else.''
''Correct.
You're my last and true and only love.
Is that correct?
But you asked me to tell you.''
''Please tell me,'' the girl said. ''I'd like to be your honey dog if I knew how to do it.
But I am only a girl from this town that loves you.''
''We'll operate on that,'' the Colonel said. ''And I love you. I probably picked up that phrase in the Philippines.''
''Probably,'' the girl said. ''But I would rather be your straight girl.''
''You are,'' the Colonel said. ''Complete with handles and with the flag on top.''
''Please don't be rough,'' she said. ''Please love me true and tell me as true as you can, without hurting yourself in any way.''
''I'll tell you true,'' he said. ''As true as I can tell and let it hurt who it hurts.
It is better that you hear it from me, if you have curiosity on this subject, than that you read it in some book with stiff covers.''
''Please don't be rough.
Just tell me true and hold me tight and tell me true until you are purged of it; if that can be.''