At H-Hour on D-Day an armada of liberty
Brought men and women of flesh, blood and bones
And from many countries to the wide open sands
Of Normandy. And so began a day of death, of violence
Of fear and bravery and of unity.
An armada built out of a treaty of trades unionists and industrialists
Carrying painters, paper hangers, lathe turners and bankers.
Mechanics and pastry chefs, dustmen and postmen.
Managers and workers, shirkers and farm labourers
Who ran up those beaches on that wet June day.
Facing Nazi bullets and mortars which were indifferent
To Lords and Knights or miners and steelworkers.
Long barrelled guns cut down double-barrelled names
And the Georges, the Alfies, the Charlies and the
Tommies; that day of days, all the same.
Sword, Gold, Utah, Omaha and Juno;
Stretches of bloody sand where men of
All ranks and class became a brotherly band
And got on with the job in hand of staying alive
And continuing the people’s stand against the 45 degree
Raised hand and the stupidity and banality of the
Nazi Klan. Where to a woman and a man in planes,
On the sea, in the factories and on the land; defiance against
Fascism was writ large in a battle plan called Overlord.
And for those murderers of Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals
And the disabled the legions from many nations aboard
Those ships brought a reckoning forged by unity and justice.
The 6th of June 1944 was the biggest seaborne invasion
The world ever saw, but not an invasion for riches, mineral
Wealth or money but an invasion of those that refused to surrender
To an evil, despotic tyranny. And for all those barbers and bus drivers
Who ran up those beaches that day It’s you and your comrades
I’ll wave a flag for any day.
I thank you all from my Albion born, Internationalist heart.
©Robert Hill 2014
