Utah

A special place…. Now writing this blog from the heart of the Somme.

I realise you can’t read the poem on a memorial plaque at Omaha Beach titled, “Remember Omaha,”

They climbed aboard with anxious heart

The madly sea-tossed landing-craft,

The sea-fog on that sad morn

All but shrouded the pale dawn,

As if heav’n itself dared not see

The hounds of hell that day set free.

They disembarked under hail of shot,

Spewing up all ” one knew not what

Facing those cliffs, with gunfire ablaze

Waves bore broken bodies along

The length of that encrimsoned strand,

Where Death was given so free a hand.

They were no heroes

Though all were heroic

In that eventful day,

When mankind put all at stake.

It’s an understatement to say

That our liberty was dearly bought.

At the time of that first onslaught.

The foam is red.

All is now still, save for the breeze

That carries back, across the seas

The souls of America’s sons,

Whilst the sun, now and then warms

Those 20-year-olds who sleep today

Facing the sea in Normandy.