大象传媒

This is a poem taken from J.K.Coates' collection of 'The Sprog', 45 Air School. Oudtschoorn. South Africa. This was a RAF training school. It reflects the experiences of many in the war not in the Front Line but who nevertheless played a vital role.

"What did you do in the War daddy?
How did you help us to win?"
"By teaching pupils their Nv. laddie;
I never had a show in."

Woe and alack and misery me. I trundled round in the air.
And instead of being shot down by Nazis, my pupils drove me to despair,
Thus was my service rewarded, my years of experience paid,
never was a Hun have I followed right down, nor ever gone out on a raid.
'Twas just navigation from morning to noon, and tax-ing long after tea,
Till we thought that we couldn't get posted too soon
And we were always out on the spree
And just before we had finished with one course,
There was another already in sight.
More pupils to show around the aircraft,
And more to lose us at night.

But sometimes we read in the papers, of deeds our old pupils had done
And we were glad to have seen their beginnings, to have shown them the way to the sun.

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