01-Jun-2020

D-Day 76: Normandy Veteran's Poem On War and Remembrance

Mervyn Kersh, now 96, served as a Private with the Ordnance Corps. He landed on 9 June 1944, D+3.

“I was given the Order of March which told me where and when I was to land but only in relation to other units, not the place and date. Everything was related to D+ whatever.

We had a reconnaissance party of 10 who were to go over first to locate a suitable site for 200 men and 1,000 vehicles. When they left our camp we knew D-Day was about to start or had already started. The rest of us followed the next day down to Gosport.”

For the 76th anniversary of D-Day, the Trust shares one of Mervyn’s most evocative poems on the subject of  war and remembrance:

Vigilance

It is good to remember how we felt in time of war;

To feel all the hatred for the misery and gore;

To relive our thoughts and feelings at the evil that we saw;

And still be determined to prevent it all once more.

 

Remembering, means we don’t forget, and have not fought in vain;

Recalling what could once more be if we forgot the pain;

It means that we still heed the signs from some oppressive reign;

And keep our strength and will to fight, so we need not fight again.

 

 

Colour image: © Glyn Dewis