Fortress by Weeley Bridge burning;
Wellington shattered, Point Clear.
Two Bostons - sleek virgins on transports,
At Boxted collided in air.
A Spitfire lies rusting near Walton,
With a Dornier not far away;
The Dakota that dived into Osea
Had only flown for one day.
Messerschmitt; plunged in a sandpit -
pilot disembowelled by a tree,
And the poor bloody Hurricane flyer
Who froze to death in the sea.
Heinkel shot down, crashed in Clacton;
Mustang - ditched out of reach,
And the Beaufighter, crippled by gunfire -
Burnt out, upside down, on the beach.
Their grave is a small piece of Essex,
Wherever we go, they are near.
So sometimes, stand still and salute them
- those young men who fell from the air.
Angus Dewar
8th March 2006