Military History

I suppose my enduring hobby since quite early Childhood has been Military History of the 20th Century.  Some original members may remember the Military quizzes that I used to place on here a few years ago.  They proved quite popular.

One of the spin offs of reading Military History has been an appreciation of the sometimes quite beautiful Poems that were written either by or for some of our service people. Two in Particular always bring a lump to my throat.

The First "High Flight" was  written by a young Fighter Pilot  John Gillespie Magee Jr in the early 40's  He died a few weeks after writing it.  Today it is well known by aircraft enthusiasts and I recommend that you look it up.

But for me the most emotive is the Poem "The Life that I have" written by a SOE handler for one of his Agents Violette Szabo.  Violette Szabo was a French National working as a British Agent in France for the British SOE.  The poem became her code signature.  She was eventually captured by the Germans tortured and Shot.  Her story was related in the post war movie "Carve her name with Pride"

The Poem still makes my eyes smart today.

"The life that I have 

is all that I have

and the life that I have is yours.

The love that I have, Of the life that I have, is yours and yours and yours.

A sleep I shall have, A rest I shall have, yet Death will be but a pause.

For the peace my years, in the long green grass, will be yours and yours and yours."

It is too easy to forget the sacrifices of young people like Violette who in her late 20's left her young child in London to go underground in occupied France in an effort to shorten the war.

It is 74 years ago this week, that she left the UK on her first but final mission.

TF