Air Gunners
Title
Air Gunners
Description
Three verse poem concerning air gunners.
Creator
Language
Format
One page printed document
Publisher
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
S102SqnRAF19170809v10008
Transcription
AIR GUNNERS
On Mother Earth they walked with pride,
Up in the air they fought and died.
They are no more. The Service sees
No further use now for AGs.
Their time is past, their day is o'er,
And we shall see them nevermore;
In modern aircrews there will be
No Tail-End Charlie or WOp/AG
A little box will now compute
How, when and where and what to shoot;
So we invent, advance adjust,
As every modern Air Force must.
And little boxes will succeed
In firing guns in time of need.
But air-crew they can never be
Like Tail-End Charlie and WOp/AG
And little boxes cannot breed
The kind of men they supersede;
The men whose place in history
Inviolate will always be.
And when the rolls of fame unfold,
And tales of valour are retold,
Full many a story there will be
Of Tail-end Charlie WOp/AG
Harry Whittaker
On Mother Earth they walked with pride,
Up in the air they fought and died.
They are no more. The Service sees
No further use now for AGs.
Their time is past, their day is o'er,
And we shall see them nevermore;
In modern aircrews there will be
No Tail-End Charlie or WOp/AG
A little box will now compute
How, when and where and what to shoot;
So we invent, advance adjust,
As every modern Air Force must.
And little boxes will succeed
In firing guns in time of need.
But air-crew they can never be
Like Tail-End Charlie and WOp/AG
And little boxes cannot breed
The kind of men they supersede;
The men whose place in history
Inviolate will always be.
And when the rolls of fame unfold,
And tales of valour are retold,
Full many a story there will be
Of Tail-end Charlie WOp/AG
Harry Whittaker
Collection
Citation
Harry Whittaker, “Air Gunners,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 18, 2025, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/38314.
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