Eventful War Nick Armbrister poems

Eventful War

Nick Armbrister

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/eventful-war

Theatre Time

So the Japs hit Pearl Harbour, the Philippines and others

Their war in the Pacific took a dramatic turn

No longer just fighting Nationalist China

Now involving America and the Allies

Their bastions fell one by one:

Philippines, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaya, Borneo, Wake Island and more

Imperial Japan built up her Co-Prosperity Sphere

She stole what she didn’t have at home

Chinese minerals, Korean steel, Singaporean rubber, Dutch East Indies oil

Envious eyes looked to conquer at Australia and India

To take these would shatter the British Empire forever

And to link up with the Nazis who would invade Persia for the oil

Making a darkly different world where evil reigned

Under an Axis of evil snuffing out freedom and democracy

But it was different and Japan only rose for awhile

America licked her wounds and fought back

On the battlefield and in the factories to be supreme

It wasn’t until the Americans became stronger

That Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal, Okinawa and others fell

As did the Empire of Japan in total war

With incessant B-29 fire bombings

The dropping of two atom bombs

And a Soviet invasion of Korea

It was over no more militaristic ways

Rules Rules Rules

There are rules you must follow for this is the law

If you stroll in the road you get a jaywalking fine

This is for your own safety so you’re not run over

There are other rules which are much harsher

In a dictatorship there are rules you must follow

Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party had many such rules

Do as they say and you may live, for a little while

The Jews had to abide by many harsh rules or else

Jews can’t open or run their own business

They can’t practise their religion or attend a synagogue

The Star of David must be visible and worn at all times

These and more were rules the had to be followed

But really it didn’t matter for they were all doomed

Hitler drafted his Final Solution to the Jewish Question

It was open season on the Jews in Europe

He chose Poland to murder them on an industrial scale

Poland had an excellent railway system to all Europe

Train loads of Jews arrived daily each carrying thousands

They were murdered within hours after being processed

Those Jews never broke the law nor were criminals

Nazi paranoia and insanity methodically targeted them

Simply because they were Jewish and Hitler’s enemy

History recorded their names and number and figures

Figures from Warsaw, from Budapest, from Oslo...

The Jews broke Hitler’s number one paranoid rule

They were Jewish by birth and heritage and had to die

Bomber Plane

The old saying was that the bomber will always get through to the target

To drop bombs on innocent civilians or a war factory or air base

And win the war for us by bombing our enemy and blow them to pieces

This wasn’t always the case for bombers were often hacked out of the sky

Dozens of British Blenheim and Battle bombers were shot down over France

As were hundreds of Nazi Junkers, Heinkel and Dornier bombers over Britain

And hundreds of American Liberators and Flying Fortresses were lost over Germany

The bomber plane was made to terrorize civilian populations and bomb them

Destroy their will to support war and fight so their nation collapsed

This never quite happened though bomber planes killed indiscriminately

Hundreds of thousands were blown to bits in World War 2 by the bomber

The Nazis experimented on Guernica in Spain in the Civil War and got results

Nasty bloody brutal merciless results on an undefended town with more to follow

Warsaw in Poland, Rotterdam in Holland, Dunkirk in France, Belgrade in Yugoslavia...

Japan was part of the bomber club with a fleet of modern planes ready for war

Blooded in China against a weak but tenacious enemy equipped with old fighters

Which fought bravely but couldn’t stop the destruction of Chinese cities and casualties

Imperial Japan got a taste of war and their air fleets raided Hawaii, Singapore, Rangoon...

Their Prosperity Sphere adventure to gain a massive new empire and recourses

The same Nell and Betty bombers were effective against American and British warships

Sinking a score or more and ending battleship supremacy by control of the air

When nations acquired fighter planes and wisely used them the bombers were battered

With heavy losses in aircraft and trained crews quicker than could be replaced

A war of attrition that wasn’t always won for the enemy was smart and cunning

The Americans sent escort fighters all the way to the target to protect the heavies

And the British sent night fighters to guard their night bombers over Germany

The Hampden, Whitley, Wellington, Stirling, Halifax and Lancaster bombers were like the moon

Their night bombing losses waxed and waned as tactics were developed by both sides

By day or night the terror bombers relied on surprise, speed, firepower, strategy and luck

To reach their objectives and destroy it in a rain of high explosive and fire bombs

Time and again they got through to flatten Nazi towns and cities and win the war

It was the same with Imperial Japan’s cities destroyed by the mighty Superfortress

Using incendiary bombs by the million and finally the mighty atomic bombs

Proving once and for all the bomber will get through and obliterate its target

A historical battle where slow weak bombers perished and fast strong bombers thrived