When I sit alone and close my eyes
Perhaps think of things long past
It is then I often visualise
How life has flown by so fast
My memory now is of a story
On which I will now recollect
A tale that was passed on many years ago
By a late friend, ex Soldier, I still respect
He told of a time he was shipped far away
On a troopship to Durban he sailed
Then up the East coast of Africa
In tropical kit regaled
But never knowing the Sahara desert
Their home was soon to be
Much less the many months and years
Before their Families they would see
They travelled far into this no-man’s land
And formed a make believe Airstrip there
They encircled the perimeter with barbed wire
Ever conscious of attack from the air
They set up make believe tanks and aircraft
All covered with camouflage netting
But it all seemed real to the Lufwaffe
As seen by the air raids they were getting
Every day the Bulldozer driver
Formed an apparent runway in the sand
Giving an outsider the impression
That Allied planes would take off and land
The Royal Artillery lads did their bit on the Bofors
Keeping the Luftwaffe Fockerwolfs away
As their raids became more persistant
Whether it be night or day
Then one day the Bulldozer driver
Still driving the machine to and fro’
Was subjected to an all out aerial attack
There was nowhere for him to go
The Bofors did their best to deter the attackers
Until the cowardly Fockerwolfs fled
All that was left was the shot up vehicle
And beside it the Gallant driver lay dead
He’d given his life for a make believe Airstrip
Was it really worth dying for
But perhaps it was the actions of men like these
That helped to shorten the desert campaign
To defeat Rommel and his Africa Corps
At the Battle of El Alamein