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On the 80th Anniversary of D-Day

Humanity once more is under threat,
when eighty years ago a Western front
was opened up at Normandy to get
another foot in Europe’s door, then hunt

down fascists who for years ruled France’s roost,
inflicting death and terror on the folk
across an entire continent. It loosed
a beast that smashed the occupier’s yoke.

Five D-Day beaches ran with Allied blood,
as bullets, mines and mortars took their toll.
No gun emplacements stemmed the potent flood
of liberation, fought for, heart and soul.

Let’s celebrate the freedoms which that day
bestowed on us, and keep them, come what may.

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Paul A. Freeman is the author of Rumours of Ophir, a crime novel which was taught in Zimbabwean high schools and has been translated into German. In addition to having two novels, a children’s book and an 18,000-word narrative poem (Robin Hood and Friar Tuck: Zombie Killers!) commercially published, Paul is the author of hundreds of published short stories, poems and articles.

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17 Responses

  1. Brian A. Yapko

    Thank you, Paul, for this very moving sonnet. It is hard to believe that 80 years have passed since that fateful day. Most of those heroes must surely be gone now. It is up to us to remember their valor and sacrifice. Given these turbulent times, I’m especially glad you did so today.

    Reply
    • Paul A. Freeman

      Glad I did it too, Brian. The importance of June the 6th, 1944, cannot be understated. All those who fought, and all those who died that day, deserve to be remembered.

      Reply
  2. C.B. Anderson

    Fortunately for me, my father was stationed in Alaska (Attu) during WWII, for otherwise I might not be here to make comment. But it’s not as though bombing raids over Japan were without risk. And yes, I’m happy to be here.

    Reply
    • Paul A. Freeman

      Of course, Omaha Beach, immortalised in Saving Private Ryan, took enormous casualties, using overwhelming numbers to attain the objectives. That said, during wartime, death can lurk everywhere.

      Reply
  3. Roy Eugene Peterson

    Thank you, Paul, for this fine tribute to the Allied Forces, their memory and caution to keep the faith!

    Reply
    • Paul A. Freeman

      Yesterday, it just felt right to pen something for the commemoration of D-Day. Just imagining what it must have been like being in the first wave or parachuting into the unknown is frightening.

      Reply
  4. Margaret Coats

    Paul, this is one of your finest poems, fully expressing the significance of the Day, then and now. In the first line and the last, you remind us that the fight is never over, while intervening lines admire the valor and honor of the forces fighting on D-Day and before and after. You fill me with gratitude again for my mother’s cousin, who as an officer in the Eighth Air Force, began the battle weeks earlier, to make sure that the Luftwaffe could not use French airfields on the Day itself. May we ever recall that “potent flood of liberation” you celebrate, and do our best that it continue to flow.

    Reply
    • Paul A. Freeman

      Thank you, Margaret.

      I have an affinity for D-Day, partly because it was my grandfather’s birthday. Every year he would instill in me the day’s importance. And although he was too young to serve in the First, and too old to serve in the Second World War, he played a strangely pivotal role in Hitler’s downfall – which I plan on writing about soon.

      Reply
  5. Cynthia Erlandson

    Thank you, Paul, for movingly memorializing this crucial day and the brave people who made it happen.

    Reply
    • Joshua C. Frank

      Yes, I second this. This is basically what I was going to say. Well done!

      Reply
    • Paul A. Freeman

      Thanks, Cheryl. Those who died, got wounded, or were forever changed by the experience of D-Day should be remembered not only for their sacrifice, but what they endured the experience for.

      Reply
  6. Shamik Banerjee

    A heartfelt tribute to the heroes and indeed to this unforgettable event in the history of the world. Thank you, Mr. Freeman.

    Reply
  7. Jeff Eardley

    Well done Paul. Having been to the D-day beaches many times and yesterday, been overwhelmed by the testimony of veterans from here and the US on TV, your words reflect the sacrifice of these guys from a generation that knuckled down and got on with it. Thank you.

    Reply
    • Paul A. Freeman

      Thanks, Jeff.

      As I’ve mentioned above, D-Day’s always been a fixture in my life, the 6th of June being my grandfather’s birthday (as he reminded us every year), and The Longest Day being one of those films I could watch again and again when it came on TV.

      Of course, Spielberg alerted us more forcefully to the grim reality of D-Day, and as you observed, the testimony of survivors of that greatest armada of landing craft ever puts the whole event into perspective.

      Reply

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