Axis & Allies - damowords

Black Gold
A flight of spitfire falls from sommer sky
To land on an oil fields welllaid remake
Of isle astride the highway of supply
All alone in an hostile Axis lake
Thro constant fire
Urged on by their belief
That the heads of empire must send to them relief
Harbours expectant with children
& weary with sad farmers,
Cut short nervous conversation
To cheer for the Port Chalmers,
The Stars of Melbourne & Brisbane,
With their shatterʹd armours ‐
Survivors of this keystone of the war,
Then the Rochester Castle made them four!
The convoy limpʹd, or towʹd to port,
Joinʹd by vital tanker,
Tho ten ships short brave sailors brought
Salvation to anchor,
Soon submarines refuel, scent an Axis ship & sank her!
El Alamein
Driven by the dreams of his dear Fuhrer,
Weigh’d by th’expectation of Germany,
Ill with the air of the Nile’s wide delta,
The Pyramids in immediacy,
Rommel orders
His neurasthenic men
ʺBoys rev up the panzers, advance them once again.ʺ
They drove North of the Quattara
In iron‐clad caravans,
Rode the ridge Alem el Halfa
As the Somuan Shermans
Send their shells from sandy shelter,
Wreak havoc with his plans…
He paus’d, the pale moon growing paler still,
From the warm south came sandstorms thick & shrill.
Dust settles on a grey terrain,
Litter’d with armour’d hulk,
He glanced in pain thro lists of slain,
“A tanker has been sunk…”
He took the news heart‐sighing, “Call it off!” & left to sulk.
September 15 th
Meditteranean
Jabel Kalakh
September 3 rd
1942