High Five: In Memoriam [ANZAC Day 2014]

FINAL TRAINING FLIGHT

What happened once has yet to end,

Since the cards were put down,

And the evening cocoa drained,

Around the stove at the Sergeants Mess.

Turn in lads. Tomorrow is another day.

Another training run across to Ireland

And back across the steel-grey sea

To Cumberland, coasting home to Millom.

Touch Douglas on Man, on to Slieve Donard

Across the steel-grey sea and its mists

Up to sight Belfast and back to St Bees

Ahead Scafell and down to Black Combe.

Vince, you are the pilot it seems from orders -

It's lucky you played baseball for Buffalo

This is a home run with four bases

So let fly a homer and slide home the Anson.

Rene, you’ll be navigator – we’ll try the new compass.

You are only twenty but you’re smart

I had to laugh after your mother Nolia wrote:

'Unfrozen by the Mounties in Chapleau'.

Joe they have you as the back up pilot.

Maybe we could wing some extra juice

To buzz Michael and the two Marys

Over Clutha’s saintly Celtic Soccer Country.

Tom you’ll be there as the radio crackles.

Dumb bastards, they have nothing to say

And when 'eh up' you turn on the tyke-talk

Let’s hope they too come from the Dales.

As for me, I’m Sunny Jay, Bob's your Uncle -

A thirty-three year old who helped

With the cadets and watched his sixth form

Join the RAF and had to follow.

The Anson is second nature now -

We flew them from Oudtshoorn

Up the railway to Bulawayo:

“I like flying and flying likes me”

A commission delayed - expect no less

As the Avro Lancasters hatch and queue

At Broughton, off the factory lines,

Just down from the graveyard at Blacon.

Fire Dragons feeding on men and boys,

Ready for the Terror Anschlag

To bathe Siegfried in blood

In the straff and flak over Berlin.

One more and another flight tomorrow

Across the broken steel-grey sea

To test a new compass with some runs -

And temper sons staked for the dragons.

I’m a teacher, the thinker, the pipe-smoker –

The Londoner who has to take

The Blitz 'nach hause' but keep the boys safe -

A soft spot under the dragon’s wing.

As I turn in tonight, I watch the stars

And think of my wife who was here

Three short weeks ago in Silecroft -

Black Combe walks, beer at the Miner’s Arms.

We have no son – only a daughter at home,

Who shelters snuggled with Meg and her cigs,

As the streets of Loughton shake and flicker

From the raids of the beasts’ distant kin.

Dear God, keep them safe this night

And at the rising of the sun

Engrave our hopes in what's foreshadowed

As we trace across the steel-grey sea.

FOR THE AVRO ANSON CREW KILLED 14 OCTOBER 1943 AT THE BROWS, WHITEHAVEN

Sergeant Vincent James Dunnigan, Pilot, of the Royal Canadian Airforce, aged 26, who was the son of Daniel and Agnes Dunnigan, and the husband of Elizabeth Mary Dunnigan, of Buffalo, New York, U.S.A.

Sergeant, Rene Harold Murphy, Navigator, of the Royal Canadian Airforce, aged 20, who was the son of John Murphy, and of Nolia Murphy, of Chapleau, Ontario, Canada.

Flying Officer (Pilot) Henry Joseph O’Gara, of the Royal Airforce, aged 29, who was the son of Michael and Mary O'Gara of Glasgow and the husband of Mary A. O'Gara of Glasgow

Sergeant Thomas Inman, (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner), of the Royal Airforce, aged 20, who was the son of John Thomas Inman and Violet Inman of Silsden, Yorkshire.

Sergeant Cyril Johnson, (Bomb Aimer/Navigator), aged 33, of the Royal Airforce, who was the son of Harry and Constance Maud Mary Johnson of Lewisham, London and the husband of Mabel ‘Meg’ Johnson [nee Clarke] of Nantwich, Cheshire. Father of Joseph Keith Johnson [born 9 June 1944] and Susan Davina Johnson [born 1936].

NOTE

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery at Blacon, Chester contains some 460 or so graves - almost all of which are those of airmen. Of the dead, around 19 percent are Polish, 45 percent are Canadian, 14 percent are Australian, and 7 percent are New Zealanders., There is at least one South African. The remaining 15 percent are British [including other Commonwealth]. Sergeants Dunnigan and Murphy are buried at Blacon [Vince Dunnigan was of course American but the stats don't show that].