Happy Christmas
Title
Happy Christmas
Description
Multi-line poem relates story of crews arriving back at fog bound airfield from operation to Berlin. Aircraft crashed and 18 aircrew were lying dead in medical centre. Laments hoping they did not die for nothing.
Language
Format
One page printed document
Conforms To
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
SReidK473650v20012
Transcription
[underlined] HAPPY CHRISTMAS [/underlined]
“HAPPY CHRISTMAS”
We called cheerily to our friends
Hard to believe
On that Xmas Eve
How quickly happiness ends.
Our Lancaster Crews
Flying safely back
After battling through
Berlins Fighters and Flak,
Homing to Waltham
Through cloud base too low
Nowhere to divert to,
Nowhere else to go,
With fuel finished
So nearly home
They crashed landed
On the fog bound Drome.
On this Christmas night
Eighteen of our young Aircrew
Are lying dead in the Medical Flight.
Along with forty four
Killed the night before.
From the Christmas Eve Service
WE found no solace, nothing.
But our Corporal found she had lost
A diamond from her ring
With a flickering torch
On our bended knees,
Through the sermon we search
Finding ------- nothing.
If we search through life
Will we find why
Our brave Bomber boys
Had to suffer and die?
[underlined] Please God, we will not find [/underlined]
They died for --- nothing.
“HAPPY CHRISTMAS”
We called cheerily to our friends
Hard to believe
On that Xmas Eve
How quickly happiness ends.
Our Lancaster Crews
Flying safely back
After battling through
Berlins Fighters and Flak,
Homing to Waltham
Through cloud base too low
Nowhere to divert to,
Nowhere else to go,
With fuel finished
So nearly home
They crashed landed
On the fog bound Drome.
On this Christmas night
Eighteen of our young Aircrew
Are lying dead in the Medical Flight.
Along with forty four
Killed the night before.
From the Christmas Eve Service
WE found no solace, nothing.
But our Corporal found she had lost
A diamond from her ring
With a flickering torch
On our bended knees,
Through the sermon we search
Finding ------- nothing.
If we search through life
Will we find why
Our brave Bomber boys
Had to suffer and die?
[underlined] Please God, we will not find [/underlined]
They died for --- nothing.
Collection
Citation
“Happy Christmas,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 28, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/39738.
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