Remembering D Day

Remembering D Day

Pilots flight ready, combatants on board,
For drop zones in Utah and Juno and Sword,
Restoration of Europe their longed for reward,
As the leaders planned D Day, Operation Overlord

Nine million tons of essential supplies,
Skilled paratroopers would plunge from the skies,
The British, American, Canadian allies,
With more nations too and resistance French spies

On the sixth day of June in the year forty-four,
The parachutes fell on the Normandy shore,
Crafts sailed on to beaches, planes above gave a roar,
In the D-day invasion to end a World War

The Germans diverted, the troops had a chance,
To push slowly forwards and to move in to France ,
Past coastal defences, tall hedgerows of plants,
They marched and they crawled and began the advance

Richard Dimbleby there for the great BBC
And a pigeon named Gustave played a role that was key,
As he flew back to Portsmouth all those miles cross the sea,
With the first Reuters message that we might soon be free

Many soldiers were wounded, thousands more passed away,
These heroes gave lives for our freedom today,
We can only remember, we can only convey,
Our thanks and our love 80 years from D Day