62 years ago...

[SMLE]

Here is a poem I wrote...

http://www.smellysmleshooters.net/whiskey.htm

Whiskey, Gin and Schnapps

Dedicated to ALL the heroes of D-Day

By Sean Rodgers



Just outside the Pearly gates, the golden pavement stops

And there stands a little bar that serves Whiskey, Gin and Schnapps.



At a table in one corner, Three young men are drinking.

One moment they are talking, another they are thinking.



Each one has a story about that dreadful day,

When each of them arrived here by his own unpleasant way.



Joe was from Kentucky, his father tilled the soil

And hoped for better for his son than a life of endless toil.



Joe's end was fairly clean, from a rifle shot,

A heavy Mauser bullet don't slow down for no steel pot.



Tommy was from London town, a Cockney born and bred,

He drove a double decker bus to keep his family fed.



Tommy's end was rougher, a rather messy fate,

When he stepped into the flight path of that whistlin' Eighty-eight.



Fritz was from Thruringia where his father ran a bank,

His mother was pious soul who never smoked or drank.



Fritz was in a bunker he thought was out of reach,

But not from sixteen inchers standing off the beach.



Each one had a story, each one had a name,

And even with their differences, they were pretty much the same.



So we'll sing Ich Hatte einen Kameraden, play Last Post and Taps,

And drink a toast to heroes with Whiskey, Gin and Schnapps!

 

[Tropical Z]

That's great,Thanx for sharing.

 

[silliman89]

Yeah. I liked that. It makes you think a little bit. No one wants to die, and everyone is the central character in their own story, but when your number is up, it's up.

Were you there? If so thanks for that too.

My Dad was in Burma, the forgotten theater before there was a forgotten war.

 

[marley]

I was think about the bedford boys like I always do. My family is from orange co just a little north but the same people. My grandfather was on the 282 pt boat at the time in the Pacific off bougainville. My other grandfather who I never met just drove through europe or so I am told. I might have to find out what he really did. To those boys who gave all and to those who did not come home whole. Thank you Patrick

 

[Joey2]

This place this in preceptive. I doubt I would have the balls to be an infantryman invading the beaches of Normandy.

The truck drivers, tank drivers, artillary, ordnance, etc. came after. The humble honor we give should be for the infantryman, rangers, and combat engineers who made up the initial assult.

The others came after the beach was secured. These rear echolon troops are no heroes. They are necessary for the pursuit of the advance to Germany, but they are not heroes by any stretch of the immagination.

They did what they had to do.

 

[oneshooter]

Here is a veteran of that day, so long ago.

Oneshooter
Livin in Texas

 

[GrammatonCleric]

Thank you

Thank you for the poem. Fritz from the poem could have been my distant cousin. My German family members (distant) told me that two of my cousins died in WWII. One died in the Battle of Stalingrad, and the other in the D-Day invasion. I never knew them, but I'm sure that they were good men. Not everybody that fought in a German uniform was scum like Hitler and his toadies.