Remembrance Day and the British Normandy Memorial for 22,442 servicemen and women from 30 countries under British command who fell on D-Day and during the Battle of Normandy in the summer of 1944. And in the British Military Cemetery at Bayeux they lie in their many thousands, in the friendship of a shared fate, Comrades of the Commonwealth and allies together with their former adversaries.
One thousand men are walking
Walking side by side
Singing songs from home
The spirit as their guide
they walk toward the light milord
they walk towards the sun
they smoke and laugh and smile together
no foes to outrun
they march as friends and comrades
but they do not march for war
step closer to salvation
a tranquil steady corps
they dream of those they left behind
and know they dream of them
forever in those poppy fields
there walks one thousand men.
Joshua Dyer’s poem “One Thousand Men” to accompany these photos: Featured: the British Normandy memorial overlooking Gold Beach; ‘standing with giants’ installation at Gold Beach; German sector of the British War cemetery; the Allies, British and Commonwealth sectors
PoetryPix 