INTO THE LANDING CRAFT

D-Day at Dawn,

As he climbed down

The scramble net

And into the landing craft,

He was afraid,

But more than that

He was terrified,

But he was not

Afraid of death

Nor of injury,

Not of the rolling seas

Or the deafening boom

Of Naval guns

Or incessant gunfire

From the hostile shore.

None of that unnerving

Catalogue of terror

Frightened his as much,

Or made him more afraid

Than of fear itself

A paralysing fear

Filling him with anxiety

Rendering him inert

Leaving him unable

To do his duty

To remember his training

Or fulfil his function

But above all else

His greatest fear of all

Was that he would

Let down his men

When they needed him most