Mine clearing tank

A flower wilted in a gun, so many millions lost all in this war. In reality this was WW1 part two. That war was the ultimate failure of imagination.

Tank reclaimed from under water

The sun was low in the west casting a golden beam of light on distant figures far out from the shore appearing as if they had come from the sea.


I sat down and wrote:

Sea Of Remembering
The sky opened spilling
itself golden into a darkened sea
a sea of remembering

In the distance vague figures
running, running still
hunched, in antic frenzy

Memories, memories
of the once so young hazy in dreams
just over the horizon
Golden smiles and brave waves
with a look behind their eyes
last seen in nineteen forty four

The sky opened spilling
itself golden onto a darkened sea
a sea almost forgotten

Looking down the beach I saw I was no longer alone. A figure was sitting on the low concrete wall that formed the edge of the bunker. She sat with knees up to her chin, wrapped by her arms and a thick white wool sweater.Her long dark hair was being tossed by the wind around her face, pale in the deepening twilight.

We both sat in silence, separated by twenty or so metres, lost in the twilight of our thoughts. After some time I looked up and she was gone. With her departure the spell of the place was lifted and I headed back to the B & B.Looking down the beach I saw I was no longer alone. A figure was sitting on the low concrete wall that formed the edge of the bunker. She sat with knees up to her chin, wrapped by her arms and a thick white wool sweater.Her long dark hair was being tossed by the wind around her face, pale in the deepening twilight.

We both sat in silence, separated by twenty or so meters, lost in the twilight of our thoughts. After some time I looked up and she was gone. With her departure the spell of the place was lifted and I headed back to the B & B.

Allied Flags Juno Beach


Further along the coast was the decimated strong point at Point du Hoc, its six 155 mm guns taken and destroyed by 225 American Rangers, led by Col J. Rudder, who fought to scale the 33 m cliff and take out the guns before H-Hour. By the time they were relieved, 2-1/2 days later, there had been 135 casualties.

Sunset Of Lives

This is the Canadian Cemetery at Juno Beach. Canadians provided 1 in 5 of all the troops landed on D-Day. So many of the dates on the headstones were June 6,1944.

These Canadians did this for us all, and paid with their lives.

I was haunted by the question.

Their stones stand silent in the setting sun,

why is it that I can leave and they can not?

The Maple Leaf found on all Canadian Headstones