Axis & Allies - damowords

Arctic Circle
The ice‐encrusted look‐out grew entranced
Blinking rosy‐ice hyperborean,
The glowing polar coast cappʹd the distance,
Darkling realms of half‐light Cimmerian;
These shadows ploughʹd
Northerly with due care,
Rollʹd & pitchʹd thro grey cloud, spray freezing in the air.
Jack Sumner shouts day in day out,
His convoy runs the gauntlet,
Batterʹd & scatterʹd y the kraut
With many a sinking threat,
But well the British gunneres fought,
Bursting the minefield net,
To be spotted by their Russian raven,
To escort them safely to this haven.
They enterʹd the ghostly harbour,
Dischargʹd their martial bread,
To help Russia hack down Hitler
In terrible bloodshed ‐
Then drownʹd their thin‐frayʹd nerves with vodka in a drinking
shed.
Archangel
September 1942
Urban Crucible
Paulus put down the phone on der Fuhrer,
Turn’d to his gen’rals, “That man must be mad,
Not content for us to reach the Volga,
Ev’ry brick of this city must be had!”
With cautious voice
He order’d the advance,
Restricted of all choice, condemn’d to court with chance.
Immazed the ‘Drang Nach Osten’s’ flow
All in the rubble carcass,
Around the huge, grey grain silo,
Held by ragged defenders,
Dread lingers in ev’ry shadow,
Wylde shots blast at noises ‐
Rages a vicious hand‐to‐hand combat
In sewer, stairwell, cellar, shop‐front, flat.
Pity the poor civilian,
Courageous troglodyte,
Who has chosen subt’ranean
Defending thy birthright,
This is thy city, thy property, thy striving, thy fight.
Stalingrad
September 19 th
1942