Axis & Allies - damowords

First Blows
With the ʹPas de Chargeʹ a year of peace dies,
Four hundred cannon sound the roar of Mars,
Grey clouds of smoke darken the summer skies,
Once more to battle, once more to the Wars;
ʺVive lʹEmpereur!ʺ
The fanatical scream
Along the meandering, marshy Ligny stream.
All day beneath the searing sun,
Round the villages & plain,
Reverberating shout & gun
As Death deals slaughter & pain,
All for holy Napoleon
Ten thousand now lie slain ‐
As black flags flutter, no quarter given,
Backwards, slowly, the Prussians are driven.
The old Mercurial gusto
Observes the hour‐glass sands,
ʺDʹErlon must show the killer blow
Upon the Saint Amands,
While Ney must know the Fate of France lies firmly in his hands.ʺ
Fleurus
15:30
The Fog of War
Whilst two mighty battles raged & thunderʹd
DʹErlon marchʹd his corps throʹ pleasant verdure
Tʹward the long, straight Roman road that sunderʹd
The Belgic plain twixt Nivelles & Namur;
Ready to fall
On the flank of the foe,
But some panicky Gaul prevents the killer blow.
From the farm at Gemioncourt,
Lust drenching his Gallic blood,
As thoʹ he rode at Agincourt,
The battle misunderstood,
Ney gazed into the fog of war,
Saw men in thʹempty wood;
But five thousand Belgians held the crossroads
While his twenty‐five stood sharpʹning their swords.
DʹErlon dropt the marshalʹs order
Cursing the confusion,
So to answer his emperor
Despatchʹd two divisions,
Then wheelʹd West to Quatra Bras with the mass of decision.
Marbais
17:00