D-DAY CELEBRATIONS
The TV presenter speaks of ‘sacrifice’.
She is al fresco on a purple sofa
with puce cushions. In the middle ground
are dignitaries, veterans, and a band.
Beyond are the War Graves Commission’s white ranks
of the British dead from Sword and Gold.
Only one speaker – beret, blazer, medals,
a RN signaller on a landing craft –
comes close to hinting that no one chose
to be a sacrifice. His speech is short,
even appropriately amusing,
and delivered unwaveringly
until the phrase, ‘My abiding memory’.
He halts, overcome – then repeats the words:
and, for the untold time, becomes a helpless
witness. The young squaddies he had joked with –
moments before the ramp clattered down –
were dead, floating with the tide toward the sand.
Ashen
November 8, 2020Touching, the futile attempts for glory.
Keith Johnson
November 8, 2020It is so important that we of the succeeding generation keep these memories alive. I was born 9 June 1944 as the ‘boys were on the Beaches’, my father already one of the RAF dead. It is vain to believe that only the living observe.
Kate Harrison
November 9, 2020Amy Beechey, from Lincolnshire, was one of 2 mothers who lost 5 sons in the Great War. In April 1918, Amy Beechey was presented to King George V, and honoured by the King and Queen for her immense sacrifice – but despite her great pride in her sons, she was a reluctant heroine.
“It was no sacrifice, Ma’am,” she told Queen Mary. “I did not give them willingly.”