The shores of Normandy (2014)    (video)

 

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1. In the cold grey light of the sixth of June, in the year of forty-four,

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    the Empire Larch sailed out from Poole to join with thousands more.

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    The largest fleet the world had seen, we sailed in close array,

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    and we set our course for Normandy at the dawning of the day.

 

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2. There was not one man in all our crew but knew what lay in store,

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    for we had waited for that day through five long years of war.

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    We knew that many would not return, but all our hearts were true,

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    for we were bound for Normandy, where we had a job to do.

 

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3. Now the Empire Larch was a deep-sea tug with a crew of thirty-three,

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    and I was just the galley-boy on my first trip to sea.

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    I little thought when I left home of the dreadful sights I'd see,

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    but I came to manhood on the day that I first saw Normandy.

 

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4. At Arromanches off the Beach of Gold, 'neath the rockets' deadly glare,

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    we towed our blockships into place and we built a harbour there.

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    'Mid shot and shell we built it well, as history does agree,

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    while brave men died in the swirling tide on the shores of Normandy.

 

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5. For every hero's name that's known, a thousand died as well,

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    on stakes and wire their bodies hung, rocked in the ocean swell.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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    And many a mother wept that day for the sons they loved so well,

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    men who cracked a joke and cadged a smoke

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    as they stormed the gates of hell.

 

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6. As the years pass by, I can still recall the men I saw that day,

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    who died upon that blood-soaked sand where now sweet children play.

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    And those of you who were unborn, who've lived in liberty,

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    remember those who made it so on the shores of Normandy.

 

    (Jim Radford)