poem: The Longest Day; June 6, 1944

[ Copyright by me, 2022. All Rights Reserved. ]


it started late at night,
parachutes dropping in the night,
some dropped over land,
and some drowned.

ack-ack firing in the night,
tracers slicing aircraft apart.

Commandos and Free French dropping behind German lines.
with the help of the French Resistance
cutting rail lines and telephone wires.

men in scuba gear,
trying to cut paths in the beach defenses,
many being blown apart by artillery and grenades.

'Hold until relived' was the word,
for Paratroopers holding beach exits,
and glider-born British Commandos holding bridges in the night.
Some were wounded, and some died,
in glider wrecks,
in terrible firefights.
But they held, until relieved.

Flares, machine gun fire, and metal crickets click in the dark,
sometimes answered by two clicks,
sometimes by Mauser rifle fire.

With the dawn ships drew up before Normandie.
Landing craft were launched, ship's guns roared.
Free French warships fired upon the homeland.
To free their French families,
from the hobnailed booted Army.

Atlantic Wall shore emplacements replied in kind,
ships burned,
and men died.

The landing craft made their way to the beaches
some being blown up before they got there.
Men drowned and some were rescued.

machine gun fire tracked across the men there,
some died and some made it to the breakwater,
The Rangers climbed cliffs to take out a gun,
that they didn't know were no longer there.

Aircraft roared overhead.
Some going inland to attack,
others going to attack the landings.

Troops hit the beaches,
some lost weapons,
and some lost all,
some wanted a relief from being seasick,
And some made it ashore ready to fight.

The concrete blocked beach exits were blown.
The move inland proceeded.
Towards waiting Commandos and Paratroopers,
who held until relieved,
or died trying.

Many lived,
many men died,
and many were horribly wounded.

and then, finally, it was D-Day Plus 1.

the end of The Longest Day.

Addendum:

I recently found out that Rommel made a big show of Point du Hock,
and the gun emplacements there.

After the propaganda film was done,
the guns were moved inland,
a different site was created,
heavily fortified and casemented,
camouflaged.

It wasn't attacked under D-Day plus 3. Its heavy howitzers,
fired on the beaches killing and wounding many.

The Rangers were supposed to attack it on D-Day,
they were unable to do so.

Two Sergeants of the Rangers did go inland behind the Point,
and found the howitzers there and took them out.
--  
Jim