D-Day 75
I recently accompanied a 94-year-old veteran on the cruise ship Boudicca to the beaches of Normandy for the service of remembrance to mark this momentous historic occasion. It was a very enlightening and humbling experience.
I stood with the old men on the beach of sharp memories
Their past out of reach to me; history only they can see.
Looking back to the great attack
Landing craft abeam and abaft spilling fearful, determined men
Into blood churned waters of destruction
The waves, the undertow’s suction
Dragging comrades to their doom, men who only hours ago talked of home
Smoking, nervously joking
Thinking of loved ones left behind, their children crying as they are dying
Bullet pierced, shrapnel-torn some sinking down to drown
The helpless watched the hapless die, no time to cry,
Machine guns clatter, bodies shatter, men scatter. No deflection, same direction
On., on up the death-scoured, hate-showered beach
To reach the dreaded pillbox, to end forever its malevolence
I watched my friend, saw his teardrops fall upon that sand,
Seventy-five years of pain, dead comrades briefly live again
Peoples of this land thank him and others, forever brothers
Joined by their suffering shared, grateful of their life spared
Visiting graveyards, endless rows, some whom God alone knows
“Know unto God” the tombstone read, Was it our Jonny, Bill or Fred?
Yet sorrowful eyes do not despise their former enemy, for that place, too,
Was their Gethsemane
Ninety-four years old he stands, erect, a sad but proud man He played his part
In this cruel war, hell’s creation, that tore at the nation’s heart
We turn as parades pass, The great and the good of our land
Pretend to understand, yet those who were there cannot
Bugles call, flags are raised, the old men praised
It will happen again, we just know not when
Will we ever hear of war’s Amen?
I really liked the line “On, on, up the death-scoured, hate-showered beach”… My feelings towards war have become ambivalent lately. On the one hand, the two world wars were completely unnecessary (the second one only happened because of the first one), they were atrocities committed against the people of Europe (particularly its young men) by the powers that be. And yet, when I look at my own generation and even more so the generation after mine, I see a bunch of spoilt bastards who only care about what they want, who disdain the elderly and the working class, who think… Read more »
“sometimes I think that the best thing for the British would be another war”
Really, you really believe that after reading this poem?
Sometimes, yes. A civil war. This is the direction we’re heading in anyway. We have a divided population. Two groups of people who hate each other’s guts. Maybe the best thing would be for the sick society to just vomit, to just bring it all up, get it out of its system, then move on.
Roundheads and Cavaliers, cut off a few politicians’ heads, then back to normal like nothing ever happened.
There are things we are trying at this very moment to change things without a civil war. I don’t think anyone would disagree that when Merkel let 1m Syrians into the EU she made a huge mistake. But that wasn’t our mistake, it was Germany’s.
No, you are wrong, there are plenty of people in our country who disagree that Merkel made a mistake. These are the kinds of people who think that the world’s borders should come down, and that we need more Muslims in the UK (because 23,000 Islamists walking freely on British streets isn’t enough). You can see these people in their thousands at every anti-Brexit or anti-Trump rally, holding up their cunty little signs saying “blah blah racism blah blah Islamophobia blah blah diversity is our strength, freedom is slavery, unthink ungood thoughtcrime”. RACIST (noun): Person who doesn’t want their children… Read more »
just to say, men and boys, since you are in Poland read Witold Gombrowicz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdydurke
this one, men and boys you said, Pornografia is also relevant. what are men what are boys, the two generations the age gap the cultural gap manipulating the youth
deep books, the deepest
a true patriot has no problem with his fellow men, but politicians. is it not interesting that all each side proclaims is anything as far away as possible from Direct Democracy? because think tanks and politicians don’t want their sheep to see the light.
I heard a line once in a long-forgotten B movie: “There will never be peace until the last general is strangled with the intestines of the last politician.” Thanks for commenting.
Hear hear!
Wow! Just say what you feel, Alfie, Wow! I’ve fought in 2, admittedly small, insignificant wars and one nasty peacekeeping operation trying to stop ethnic cleansing. I would never advocate another war of any sort.
I would agree there is a smug elite in Britain that could do with a damn good shake-up. There are also a great many decent young people trying to do what’s right. As for Guardian readers? Their sexual preferences are their own business. 🙂
“The helpless watched the hapless die, no time to cry,”
This is a very evocative poem. I think the generation that fought WW2 had hoped that war in Europe was long over. In recent years the threat of it seems to be returning as hard line nationalists turn against co-operation and move towards the kind of nationalism that lead to WW2.
A nice read fella!
Thanks, Jay, I appreciate your kind comments. The third world war is yet to be, but, sadly, be it will.
You are not wrong Tony in your assertion that the threat of a third world war looms large: only this morning I heard on the radio that the USA are sending an extra 1000 troops to the Middle East to protect American interests in the region.
All it takes is one lunatic like ‘The haircut’ in North Korea, coupled with the other ‘haircut’ in America and the whole of civilization will go to hell in a handcart. Maybe it’s nature’s way of balancing the books.
Yep. World War Three will happen because of nationalists, not because of insane globalists like Angela Merkel filling Europe with terrorists, rapists and suchlike dirty scum who shouldn’t be in Europe.
excellent poem, really paints the horrors this generation had to endure in order to save our freedom. Ordinary blokes who thought they were living the good live and they were forced to defend their way of life. Don’t make the mistake the so called smug population today will do the same thing if the situation arose. All we can hope for is that the politicians who are really the wankers not Guardian readers don’t put us in this situation again.
sorry I meant the so called smug population “won’t” do the same (why can’t we edit our replies?)
Huh now I can edit! what gives?
You should see the word ‘edit’ next to your ‘reply ‘box’
Thanks for your comments gaujiros. Whether the people would or wouldn’t fight is a moot point when we have a government that will not provide us with the Army, Navy and Airforce we need. They made the same mistake in the early thirties. Now, if Argentina retook the Falkland Islands, for instance, we would be incapable of throwing them out. Simple logistics would defeat us,
I met Mrs Merkel last week. We spoke for about 10 minutes. She speaks passable English. She is actually quite a timid person, rather unsure as to how the rest of the world thinks of Germany and it’s past. I think there might well be a “power behind her throne” pushing ‘her’ policies along. There are a lot of good, skilled and very much needed people among the ‘dirty scum, though, we must not lump them all together. Controlled immigration, taking only those people with the skills we require is the answer.
You met Angela Merkel???
Well, I hope you asked her why she destroyed her country.
Yes, in Southhampton at the remembrance celebrations for the D-Day landings. Amongst the other world leaders, she looked like a rat in a snakepit. She was more interested in if my 94 year old veteran hated the Germans (He doesn’t) and Brexit, of course, was her taboo subject. I told her that, having been posted to her country for 6 years, I had a fair understanding of the German angst about the war.