Description
WWII
The season of fall is near at hand,
Chamberlain travels to a foreign land.
He travels with hat in hand.
“Peace in our time” his favourite phrase
Peace is gone. Poland ablaze.
Swastikas fly o’er many a land
But France will hold the Maginot Line as planned.
The line is broken. Paris is gone.
The lion is left to stand alone.
The Motherland is under stress
The colonies send their very best
Men and women, young and strong,
To fight for freedom, hard and long.
Brave men die on foreign lands.
El Alamein and Tobruk are daily news.
Commando raids are made on shore,
Underground meet and tell the score
Disaster at Dieppe, more dead on shore
Britain rallies boats of all sizes
To once more bring home survivors.
The planes they roar o’er British lands.
London Town hit worse than the plague.
Families sleep underground.
A stretch of Manchester is ablaze.
Theatre goers lie dead in the maze.
Hitler makes a big mistake –
Tackles the bear – leaves Lion alone.
Stalingrad holds for a hundred days.
The death bell rings for men at sea
As submarines, torpedoes ready,
Sneak silently ‘neath a cold, cruel sea
The Eagle arrives as once before.
Men, munitions, planes galore.
Land on Britain’s beleaguered shore.
Eisenhower and Montgomery make their plans
To invade foreign lands.
“Overlord” will be the name.
Germans awake at dawn to find
The largest flotilla seen by mankind.
Planes overhead. Ships below.
Men crowd low with landing gear.
Their bodies are filled with fear.
Thoughts of loved-ones enter their head.
It is sad to say – most will be dead.
Machine guns spray from bunkers strong.
The longest day seems far too long
Inching their way across the sand,
The beach is held, more men will land.
Tanks and trucks are brought ashore,
Liberating more and more
French, Dutch and Belgians cheer.
The allies, at last, are here.
Patton races across the plain.
His name will long proclaim his fame.
Chimneys smoke by the hour
Telling full shame of Nazi horror.
Joyce Duncan
