 |
Each set of decorations has its unique tale to tell, Reading them is like a book, Often their lack of numbers really reveals, What Granddad undertook. No campaign medals for a British reverse, “Wars are not won by evacuations” we’re told, But the terror of such actions time does not diminish, Nor the aftermath of Stalag nightmares fully extinguish. Volunteered, a cook into the Royal Army Medical Corps, To care for those hurt who fought, Ordered to stay, and face the Nazi foe, Be there for them when they were caught. So Admiral Ramsay claimed a great success, Dynamo cleared the beaches soaked in blood, Brought our sons back to Blighty where they belong, To regroup; fight another day; in hot desert or tropical mud. But forty thousand tommies were left behind, No little boats for them, Marched to camps of sheer deprivation; unimaginable hell, To survive their horror; wait for the guns of war to quell. — Philip Wood |