The Winds Of War

BLUE DANUBE

It was called Blue Danube, which
Doesn’t sound menacing at all
So innocuous for the first operational
Weapon in Britain’s nuclear arsenal

HMS IOLAIRE

On New Year’s Eve 1918
The Iolaire carried sailors
Veterans of the Great War
Back home to the island of Lewis
But as they approached Stornoway
As the New Year dawned
She struck "The Beasts of Holm"
And sank in the darkness
205 souls perished in the depths
They survived the horrors of war
Only to drown in the waters of home

RED COATS

The bayonets gleaming
In the sun
The piper’s pipe
The drummers drum
Red Coats forming
Up the square
The sound of battle
Everywhere
Though far outnumbered
In the field
They do not waver
They do not yield
The men
From borough and shire
The thin red line
Of the empire

PAST THE CENOTAPH THEY MARCH

Past the cenotaph they march
After Big Bens doleful chime
The proud veterans on parade
Years beyond their prime
But even with walking sticks
They still keep perfect time

THE FLOWERED FIELDS OF FLANDERS

The flowered fields of Flanders
Where met many a gallant enlistee
War visited its hell upon the earth
Turning them to a muddy bloody sea

SO SILENT WENT THE GUNS OF HELL

So silent went the guns of hell
No longer dispensing shot and shell
So we emerge from where we dwell
In answer to the armistice bell

WHETHER THEY MAY WIN OR LOOSE

Whether they may win or loose
Or whether they think its right
Our soldiers don’t get to choose
Which wars that they fight

THE RED ARMY

The Red Army
Rose from the ashes
Like a phoenix
Rising up from
The brink of defeat
To repel the invader
Pushing the Nazi scourge
Back to Hitler’s backyard
To end one war
And begin another
Colder one

RED BEARD

It was called Red Beard, which
Doesn’t sound menacing at all
So innocuous for the first tactical
Weapon in Britain’s nuclear arsenal

THE RAF SEEK OUT THERE TARGETS

The RAF seek out there targets
On recognisance missions
Brave young men
Flying beyond enemy lines
Armed with nothing more than cameras
They make pass after pass
Taking shot after shot
Before returning home
With their precious load
When the photo interpreters
Of Medmenham
Enhance the images
With their stereoscope’s
To create a 3D picture
For detailed analysis
By the boffins
Who identify a target
For more brave young men
To bomb the sites
Of the vengeance weapons

War

SOLDIERS OF ROME

They died beneath the eagle
On the battlefields Rome
And were blessed after death
To walk in the fields of Elysium

KUBLAI KHAN’S MONGOL HORDE

Kublai Khan’s Mongol horde
Set Sail In 1274
To conquer Japan
And add it to his empire
But the great deity Raijin
Conjured up a typhoon
And his Divine wind
Destroyed the Khan’s fleet
And saved the Japanese
But in 1281
They sailed again
The largest fleet every assembled
Four thousand ships
Carrying 140000 men
But when they were off the shore
Once again Raijin
Brought the Kamikaze
And scattered the fleet
To the four winds
And thwarted Kublai Khan
And he never tried again

THE VIKINGS

Killed in battle, bloody axe in hand
The reward of the Nordic warrior
Was for their souls to spend eternity
Residing in the great hall of Valhalla

IN HALIFAX NOVA SCOTIA 1917

Two ships collided in Halifax harbour,
The Mont Blanc and the Imo,
It was December 1917
And what the Nova Scotian’s didn’t know
Was the French ship was laden with explosives
And as it sailed the straight from the sea
It struck the Norwegian vessel
Causing it to explode cataclysmically
Many Canadians were killed
In Halifax Nova Scotia 1917
After the largest man made explosion
The world had ever seen

DON’T HATE THE HUN ACROSS THE FIELD

Don’t hate the Hun across the field
He’s not so very different to you
He doesn’t want to fight in foreign wars

He wants to be in the loving embrace
Of the sweet woman he loves
As you want to be in the arms of yours

ARE YOU WEARING A POPPY?

Are you wearing a poppy?
Wear it proudly on your lapel
Wear it with pride and respect
So everyone will be able to tell
That you recognise the sacrifice
Of those who fought and fell

WANDERING WARRIOR

Wandering warrior
Migrating hero of the good
Fights for God and king

THE RED ENSIGN

The unsung heroes sail
Under The Red Ensign
The telltale flag flown
By British merchantmen

THE RED DUSTER

The British merchantmen
Fly the “Red Duster”
And you will always see
The red ensign flutter

HMHS GLENART CASTLE

The Glenart Castle
Was steaming home
On a cold February night
In 1918
The hospital ship
Headed for safe haven
Her lights green
Clearly visible
Against the dark horizon
Red lamps lit her side rail
Her masthead light burned bright
Fishermen could see her
Red Cross light
Then a torpedo struct her
In the number the hold
In eight minutes
She was gone
With a 162 souls

WAR AND WARRIORS

GRANDDADS WAR

In South Africa during the Boer War
Granddad got the key of the door
In France during World War 1
He lay wounded when the day was done

He could have met a very bloody end
But for the bravery of his friend
So he lived to fight another day instead
And died an old man in his own bed

THE SOLDIER’S LAST MUSTER

When the sun is in the west
You will safely go to rest
At the setting of the sun
With your soldiers duties done
You will feel your God is nigh
As you ascend up to the sky
And in earths fading light
Where tears diminish sight
Where loved ones question why
A new star will grace the sky
Gleaming bright in the firmament
Proudly amongst the regiment
To mark the passing of a soldier son
Who died not seeing victory won
Now the time that moves us most
The plaintive lament of the last post
For those falling fighting foes
Heads bow as the bugle blows

BEFORE THE KAISER CAME

Before the Kaiser came
Swallows fed on the wing
Above green meadows
Butterflies danced on the breeze
And birdsong filled the copses

Then the Kaiser came
And no longer did birds sing
Mud filled the meadows
Gunfire echoed on the breeze
And rats fed on the corpses

FLANDERS ENDURED

A wondrous pastoral scene
Green fields and meadows
Woodland and hedgerows
Unchanged for centuries
A beautiful place, a safe place
Then came war’s unkind caress
Which swept away the green
Repainted the pastoral scene
In shades of brown
And turned everything to mud
Tree trunks devoid of branches
Stood like rows of rotted teeth
In the mouth of hell
The fetid stench of detritus
Filled the air
All this did Flanders endure
The blood, the mud, the tears
For four long years
Now another kinder hand
Has touched the land
And colour has returned
From the paint box of peace

SERRIED ROWS OF CROSSES

The landscape changed
From peace to bloody war
A hellish muddy landscape
Those men had to endure

And when war was ended
The living had moved on
The dead remained on parade
To forever guard the Somme

The landscape changed
From bloody war to peace
A sombre mark of the passing
Of those who fell before the cease

Serried ranks of white crosses
Marking those who stayed
To be forever remembered
These fallen comrades on parade

FIGHTING TALK

“You’re fighting for a just cause”
That is the justification
“You’ll make the world a safer place”
“You’ll protect your nation”

These are the politician’s words
Spoken with passion and pride
Spoken away from the line of fire
Spoken from where warmongers hide

Men of empty rhetoric
These politicians never see danger
Safe on their leather seats
They never hear shots fired in anger

PROUD HERITAGE

Like many Englishmen
When our history is revealed
My forebears shed their blood
Men who never thought to yield
On the battlefields of England
And on many a foreign field