- Contributed by听
- Clare Edwards
- People in story:听
- Tony Walsh, unknown child
- Location of story:听
- Minturno, Italy
- Background to story:听
- Army
- Article ID:听
- A3084266
- Contributed on:听
- 04 October 2004
Written by Tony Walsh
Submitted by his daughter
Yesterday Minturno lived -
Lived, dared, hoped and sighed.
Today, amid aged and cobbled ways
Three Tigers* lurked and peered...
Our orders: Target - Minturno junction
Y roads - X rounds gunfire -- Fire!!
At noon Minturno died.
We killed Minturno, yes
It was not strange or new
To sweep and blast a township,
It is not hard to do.
Except we found Anita.
About four playful years she'd known.
Her fingers held a ragged doll
Beneath her home of shattered stone.
Tonight we left Minturno dead of all
In powdered dust.
We left Anita too. She lay
Where once her whole world stood.
A tiny mound, a few flowers, so strange,
A cross of blackened wood.
"Goodbye sweet little one -
You've now joined His angels true.
Perhaps for us, a whispered word you'll have
For we know not what we do."
Tony Walsh March 1944
* German heavy tanks
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