The Saracen's Head

Happy Airborne Day!

Today is National Airborne Day!

So here's an airborne poem:

 

The sun was sinking slowly down the hot Tunisian hills

When we lined up at the airfield on that broiling summer’s eve;

We were tense with great excitement, we were raring for the kill,

And the pride was stiff within us of the Airborne on our sleeve.

We were green but quite undaunted, we were eager for a spree,

Though ‘twas hell that we were nearing on the hills of Sicily.

 

We took off in the darkness, smoothly forming into flights

Two hundred mighty transports throbbed out bravely in the night

We lost our bragging voices and our joking lost its fun

We were praying, we were silent, as we readied for the run.

Sarge called “Ready”, we were ready, we lined up above the sea

And we wondered what was waiting on the hills of Sicily.

 

"Saint Anthony!" We put ourselves in God’s almighty power

We jumped although the wind was screaming thirty miles an hour

Around us searchlights glistened, shellfire burst apart the sky

But we tumbled from the heavens with the good old Injun cry.

Before us lay a battle, grim from sea to bloody sea,

But we showed ourselves true soldiers on the hills of Sicily.

 

We have won this little island, we have won her with our blood

We have fought her menfolk, dug our graves and foxholes in her mud.

We have loved her, and ‘twas for her weeping people that we fought,

We have wept upon her, cursed her for the sorrow she has brought.

We are leaving for Salerno and the crags of Italy,

But Sicily’s soil is sacred to our comrades’ memory.

For their canopy forever is her flawless azure sky

And above them, wailing, mourning, is her foreign sea-gulls’ cry,

And her sunny sea is lapping at their gravestones as they lie

Where they gave their lives for freedom on the hills of Sicily.

posted by Mary Rose

"Godspeed"

 

...Beautiful and haughty, the great planes squatted on the level grass with their bold, blunt noses silhouetted against the brilliant African sunset and their majestic wings casting tremendous shadows across the airfield. Mechanics were still crawling over the big planes, calling to each other, doing last minute inspections. Trucks and jeeps moved about the airfield, lines of paratroopers marched to their planes, pilots stood in clumps talking of their plans... "Hand this charcoal around," said Schluch to Joe. The paratroopers smeared their faces with burnt cork as thoroughly as they could so that their faces would not show up pale and luminous in the dead of night. "This is it," said Dave, half to himself. Joe patted his shoulder in passing and Dave turned to meet his eye. Wordlessly they said goodbye, gripping each other's hard, strong, hand, trying to grin, but unable to speak. Who knew what fate awaited them in Sicily?

...At last, gaining speed, they started the takeoff, they were moving, running, hurtling down the runway, faster and faster until they lifted smoothly into the air and they were flying, gaining altitude and moving into formation. Hundreds of C-47's assembled over Tunisia that dark, windy night, and then the formation headed out for Sicily. Some paratroopers tried to relax, others stared blankly at nothing, clutching their reserve chutes. Dave twisted his sweaty hands, staring at the men across from him, their faces clear cut in a blurry haze, while old familiar prayers rattled in the back of his head...

"Thirty seconds," Joe said loudly, looking at his wristwatch. He was now to be the kicker, the last man out. Lieutenant Yates stood full in the door, clutching the sides of the plane. He would be the first to jump. Joe kept his eyes trained on the little red light by the door. Any second and he would give the signal to jump. Dave, a few men down the line, saw clearly every detail of Joe's good old familiar face in the light of a tracer bullet screaming by--the fine, thin features, the dark mustache, the clear blue eyes shining out of the smeary black soot...The light turned green. "Go!" Joe cried, thwacking the Lieutenant's shoulder, and with the undaunted cry "Geronimo!" the officer leapt into the darkness...

posted by Mary Rose