'A Day at East Kirkby'

MCookeWH2220169-150902-06.jpg

Title

'A Day at East Kirkby'

Description

Poem by Bill Cooke prior to a visit to East Kirkby - contrasting the stress of operational flying on Lancasters to the forthcoming aircraft taxi ride.

Creator

Date

2012-07

Temporal Coverage

Language

Format

One printed sheet

Rights

This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.

Contributor

Identifier

MCookeWH2220169-150902-06

Transcription

A DAY AT EAST KIRKBY

IS THIS REALLY JUST A JOY RIDE,
JUST A LITTLE BIT OF FUN.

WILL I NOT NEED STOWING MY PARACHUTE
OR NEED TO CHECK EACH GUN.

WILL IT ONLY BE A SHORT RUN
JUST A TAXI DOWN THE STRIP.

NOT EIGHT LONG HOURS OF SEARCHING
IN STRESS AND TENSIONS GRIP.

JUST A RUN AROUND THE AIRFIELD
WHEELS FIRMLY ON THE GROUND.

NOT THINKING “WILL WE DITCH TONIGHT”
AND MAYBE ALL BE DROWNED.

THANKFULLY THAT’S OVER NOW
I SLEEP PEACEFULLY IN MY BED,
REMEMBERING OFT TIMES ABOUT
MY MATES OF OLD NOW DEAD.

SO IF YOU SEE ME IN THE STREET
JUST NOD AND SAY “GOOD DAY”,
AND THANK THE LORD IT’S OVER
NO MORE AIRCREW NEED TO PAY

BILL COOKE – (MID UPPER GUNNER)
LANCASTERS 49 SQUADRON RAF 1943-45
PRIOR TO VISIT ON WEDNESDAY 11 JULY 2012

Collection

Citation

Bill Cooke, “'A Day at East Kirkby',” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed March 28, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/19656.

Item Relations

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