Dave off in five.

If only for the reason that I've seen very little publicity given to the Royal Army Medical Corps during the Second World War in comparison with all the material generated about the fighting forces during 1939-1945, I'm posting this poem. Tragically there are still so many conflicts throughout the world, Ukraine, Gaza, South Sudan, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and medics still perform miracles whenever they are caught up in these terrible events. My father was 22 years old when he wrote the diary entry on board the medical ship Dempo, off the Italian coast.

 Dave off in five.

 Your diary says on 17 May 1944,
'was a lovely sunny day.'
At 9.55 am your troop-ship Dempo 
was torpedoed, starboard side aft.
As you watched that deadly chevron 
coming straight for you, who but you 
would have run back for his greatcoat,
before jumping into the lifeboat?
Did this really only take five minutes?
And how long did that two hours feel
before being rescued by the destroyer
Catterick?  Aged twenty-two, what would
you have been doing Dave, if you'd not
had to go to war?

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