{"id":1317,"date":"2012-04-28T12:07:21","date_gmt":"2012-04-28T18:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/?p=1317"},"modified":"2012-04-28T12:14:48","modified_gmt":"2012-04-28T18:14:48","slug":"requiem-for-a-408-squadron-airman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/?p=1317","title":{"rendered":"Requiem for a 408 Squadron Airman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Requiem for a 408 Squadron Airman<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The nation sends its sons once more<\/span>
\nTo fight for freedom on a foreign shore,<\/span>
\nThey fly into the dark night sky<\/span>
\nTo bomb their target, and, perhaps, to die<\/span>
\nThese airman had no time to see<\/span>
\nThe graves of their paternity,<\/span>
\nIn Flanders fields, or otherwise,<\/span>
\nBefore they died in the dark night skies.<\/span><\/p>\n

The briefing\u2019s done its time to go,<\/strong><\/span>
\n We\u2019re off to Essen to see the show,<\/strong><\/span>
\n And take a load of a nasty surprise,<\/strong><\/span>
\n To drop it out of the dark night skies.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Round and round the fighters go
\n<\/strong>Searching for the Lancs below.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Runways behind us in the evening light,<\/span>
\n The Dutch coast ahead, but out of sight,<\/span>
\n To get to our maximum height we try<\/span>
\n Before we enter the dark night sky.<\/span><\/p>\n

Round and round the searchlights ply<\/strong><\/span>
\n Seeking victims, in the dark night sky.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

A change of course and we\u2019re running down<\/span>
\n To Happy Valley and old Essen town,<\/span>
\n Where the fighters, flak and searchlights rise<\/span>
\n To welcome us in the dark night skies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Round and round the flak does fly
\n<\/strong>Seeking to kill in the dark night sky.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0The target\u2019s marked, bomb run to go,<\/span>
\n Bombers silhouetted by the lights below,<\/span>
\n We\u2019re sitting ducks for a fighter\u2019s sharp eyes,<\/span>
\n He\u2019ll! bring us death in the dark night skies.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Requiem for a 408 Squadron Airman   The nation sends its sons once more To fight for freedom on a foreign shore, They fly into the dark night sky To bomb their target, and, perhaps, to die These airman had no time to see The graves of their paternity, In Flanders fields, or otherwise, Before they died in the dark night skies. The briefing\u2019s done its time to go, We\u2019re off to Essen to see the show, And take a load of a nasty surprise, To drop it out of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poems"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1317"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1320,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317\/revisions\/1320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}