大象传媒

All day the sounds of gunfire,exploding shells, screaming planes, exploding bombs, all causing death and destruction. Long lines of Soldiers leaving the flimsy safety of the sand dunes, the lucky ones boarding boats, and being rowed out to larger ships and survival.
This was the scene on the beach at Dunkirk, with the British Army, and their French allies desperately trying to escape from the approaching German Army.
After dark the sounds of warfare gradually decreased, with just the movement of solitary soldiers standing on watch for incoming boats, leaving their comrades to try to sleep up on the sand dunes.
As one of the watching soldiers, i remember that strange feeling of a complete lull from all the noise, as though all the world had been stilled. Then as I looked around seeing the ships on fire,the smoking town behind me, the only sounds that of the hissing and sighing of the waves at my feet, with bits of equipment, and dead bodies of Soldiers and Seamen being washed ashore.
In that brief spell just before dawn when all is silently awaiting that first burst of life, amongst all that death and destruction, I suddenly realised that I was also looking at an incredable scene of indescribable beauty. The effervesant sand sparkled like a field of diamonds,with the ebb and flow of the tide along the shoreline. The bodiesof the dead lying at the water's edge,all encased in effervesence, as though annointed with a HALo of reverance.
The quietness, the effervesence, the smoke and flames, all combined to give a feeling that just for that brief time some unseen hand had created a picture of intense beauty, and i was left with the feeling that I was privileged to experience something very special, even in that time of great stress.
Then suddenly a shout,as more boats appeared, the vision vanished, and the mayhem started again.

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