by Jerome Betts
Near the Sherman DD tank memorial, Torcross, Devon, an interpretation panel names all the 739 US sailors and soldiers who were lost at sea during the D-day training exercise "Operation Tiger" on the 28th of April 1944. Photo source: American War Memorials Overseas.
Start Bay, Slapton Sands, by the tide’s ebb and flow,
Old and young on their holidays glance
Through the list of Americans killed long ago
Rehearsing for Utah beach, France.
But Time bears down hard on all here below
Combined with the freaks of mischance;
The past eighty one years have brought changes, and so . . .
Today we have Trump, Musk and Vance.
Jerome Betts lives in Devon, England, where he edits the verse quarterly Lighten Up Online.
