I gave my today,

For your tomorrow,

I gave my young life,

To keep Europe free,

From fascist bullies,

And tyranny.

 

I flew out from Oulton.

In the dead of the night,

To rain down shells,

From way up high,

Dodging the tracer bullets

Which sparked the night sky...

Raked with the gunfire

Our bomber dived, out of control…

And the order to ‘bale out,’

Was duly given…

 

Only last night,

We’d danced, we’d sung,

I’d kissed the WAAF

I’d so wanted to marry,

And now, I was … gone!

 

“We regret to inform you,

As a result of a mission,

Your son, Robert, is missing…”

 

All this turmoil is for yesterday.

Gone, perhaps best forgotten…

When you heave a sigh,

About the bills you have to pay,

Throw up your hands,

And reach for the sky.

Listen closely, and you will hear,

My ghostly engines humming…

 

I fell from that plane

In ’45.

So that you are alive

And I am dead... 

And still I watch over you,

From the clouds above your head.