Peterborough Adult Learning Service and East Community Centre VE Day Event - Memories Book Chapter 3

"THE MEMORIES" continued

WAR POEMS

BLITZ

Hear the sounds
And hear the people
Hear the people
Hear the sounds

Hear the screams
And hear the crying
Hear the voice of
People dying

Hear from this
Humanity
What they all
Had hoped to be

Hear their hopes
And hear their fears
Hear their wish
For longer years

Maybe hear
Those bombs discern
Between if we
Can live or learn

Hear that bombs are
Smarter yet
Than we ourselves
Can ever get

WAR
September 3rd 1939 — 11 am

Each evening black out was the rule,
In the summer no windows open to keep you cool,
For it would never do to let one glimmer of light shine through,
Or you’d soon hear a watchful warden shout,
“Come on, get that bloody light out”,
As above the German bombers circled high,
Then swoop low, dropping their cargo of death from the sky,
Even now I shudder at the thought,
Of the sheer terror those nightly air raids brought,
And hatred like a deep fog filled my mind I found,
As I watched the very old trudge into London’s underground,
Ear piercing sirens - sleeping families woke, putting fear into all our folk,
Carrying small bundles of treasured things they scurried pitifully,
To be met by ladies of the W.V.S who gently calmed them — dutifully,
In these war torn years we dreaded, a bright full moon sky,
It was the “guardian of the sleeping world” some poets said,
But at such times it was no friend to you or I,
For its beams to our cities the enemy it led,
As dawn broke we heard the welcome “all clear” sound,
And oh! So wearily we emerged from our refuge deep down in the ground,
To air filled with brick dust and utter destruction all around,
Where so many of my friends and neighbours perished,
Buried beneath the ruins of the homes they cherished,
Everywhere seemed so hushed and silent at the end of the day,
But I for one, to a full time job must make my way,
Rationing of food and clothing soon begun,
This meant almost starvation and nudity for everyone,
Long years of courage and endeavour followed, trying hard to survive,
Oh! God these awful times — would it ever again feel good to be alive?
With all the bombing, next came coupons for furniture called “utility”,
As on went the suffering — the frustration — the futility,
All our prayers seemed in vain, would we ever have peace again?
But slowly — oh so slowly six years passed
And victory was ours — at last — at last
Our men folk had left to fight on far distant shore,
To places, some had never heard of before,
While we women waited, wondering if we’d see them anymore,
But no it was all over; they would soon be coming back
For peace had been won, they had made their last attack.

If only with the same endeavour, man could find the answer to world peace,
So all this pain and sorrow could forever cease,
And again to endure this heartache we never would,
For he has the ingenuity and with God’s help, I know he could.

Didn’t Jesus say: “All men are brothers, Love one another?”

THE HUNTING OF THE BISMARCK

The winged eyes of the navy watched, the news came from the sky:
“In Norways’s fretted coast today the ships of Hitler lie.”
From cloud to cloud the message ran, the watching eagles soared,
“The Bismarck and Prinz Eugen have sailed from Bergenfiord.

From cloud to cloud the answer flashed, and war was on the sea,
With “Find the foe and sink the foe, wherever they may be.”
The dogs of war were off the leash in snow and mist and gale,
And Suffolk found and Norfolk found and finding held the trail.

The mist came down upon the sea and day withdrew her light;
The quarry blessed the cloak of dark, the hunter cursed the night.
But when the red and level sun the sky began to burn
The Suffolk and the Norfolk hung like shadows at the stern.

The night rolled back across the sea. And to the west there stood
Twice twenty thousand tons of steel … the vengeance of the Hood.
And by her side The Prince of Wales, the hounds were giving tongue
Their voices spoke across the waves, the old one and the young.

Through thirteen miles of quaking air the shells screamed on their track
The Bismarck showed a blazing wound and flung her fury back;
She hurled her fury at the Hood and split her to the keel
And thirteen hundred men went down within a tomb of steel.

And like a cur that snape and flees the Bismarck with her tail,
But Suffolk clung and Norfolk clung, relentless to the trail.
The watching eagles saw her slow, though safety was at stake,
And oil, the lifeblood of a ship, was spilling in her wake.

They ran the quarry through the day, till evening dulled the sky
And guns upon the Prince of Wales drew once a brief reply
And from the north, the west, the south, new hunters joined the chase,
The vow was in their hearts to find, and sink, or find disgrace.

Victorious put her hawks aloft to battle in the dark,
And one torpedo deadly true smashed home upon its’ mark.
But mist came down upon the sea to mock the passing night,
And Suffolk tracked and Norfolk sought a quarry out of sight.

King George V, the Home Fleet brought from north in hot foot haste,
Renown and all her company from the south were not outpaced.
The call was throbbing on the air before the dawn was grey
And Rodney from convoy turned away.

And south and westward from the chase all day and all the night
Across the sea and from the sky the watchers strained their sight.
Day came. They lost her, searched and their reward was

They saw the Bismarck swinging east, alone and on the run.

The Sheffield sat upon her heels, Ark Royal’s planes put out
The ship the Hun so often sank put Goebel’s word in doubt.
For lies, the ship their lies had sunk exacted now the price
And twice torpedoed, Bismarck slowed … and reeled … and circled twice.

Peterborough Adult Learning Service would like to thank the following for making “An Evening of World War Two Memories” possible:-

Eileen and Robert Tinkler
Music

Pauline Iredale
Sing Along

Ben Iredale and his colleagues
Catering

Peter Wakefield
Publicity

Peter Lees
Additional Material

Pat Braines
Decorations

Michael Kettle and the committee

And to everyone else who has made this evening successful

Disclaimer:
The information in this booklet was collected on 8 July 2005 from participants at “The People’s War” event at East Community Centre, Peterborough.
Peterborough Adult Learning Service has no responsibility for its content or accuracy.

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