The Spitfire Poem by David Lewis Paget

‘Scramble! '
‘Take the lead, Blue Leader, '
Spat the voice on the R/T,
While the ground crew pulled the chocks
Another plugged the battery,
Then the prop was turning over
And the Merlin roared to life
As the pilot, Michael Adams,
Kissed the picture of his wife!

They had only just been married
On a sudden 36,
They had just one night together
Then raced back to face the blitz,
She to work the board, the plotter,
He to fly, and do his best,
There were twelve of them together
Flying over Sheerness!

There were Dorniers and Junkers
Who were raiding from Beauvais,
There were Heinkel One-Elevens,
Also heading London's way,
Then the R/T sprang to life again
‘Blue Leader, change your course,
There are Stuka's bombing shipping
In the channel, off the coast! '

So the flight in V-formation
Turned to face the rabid Hun,
Climbed to 30,000 feet,
Were almost blinded by the sun,
But they ran into the Heinkels
And they peeled off and they dived,
And of thirty German bombers
Only seventeen survived.

Then the Messerschmitts arrived just like
A swarm of angry gnats,
And Michael had to loop and dive
To shake one off his back,
He pulled in close behind
A lagging Me 109,
Gave a seven second burst, and watched
The German hit the brine.

Jenny moved the counters as
Intelligence came in,
The Controller spoke in earnest
To the R/T microphone,
He relayed information
To the girls around the chart,
‘We've lost two Spits from Blue Flight,
Jimmy ‘D' and Peter Sparks! '

Then Jenny bit her lip to keep
Composed all through the day,
She dreaded that her husband's name
Be mentioned in that way,
She knew the odds were final
And that few of them survived,
Who took that burst of cannon shells,
Flipped over, burned and dived.

While out there in the universe
The everlasting sun,
Was busy flinging solar flares
At earth, as from a gun,
They magnetised the atmosphere
And swirled in colours bright,
Aurora Borealis
Also called ‘The Northern Lights! '

When Michael found his ammo done
He turned and left the fray,
He climbed and still he climbed
Until the Germans fell away,
He heard a voice start singing
In the silence all around,
It sounded like an angel
Or like Jenny, on the ground!

The daylight disappeared and he
Hung up there in his Spit,
The nose was in a climb, but it
Just floated, out of it,
The Merlin roared then sputtered
But it hung there in the air,
While swirls of brilliant colour
Tinged the atmosphere there!

While back at Biggin Hill the Spits
Returned about that time,
The crew expected ten, but when
They counted, there was nine.
‘It seems that Michael Adams
Has gone missing on the day,
Let's hope he's in the channel…'
Jenny wiped a tear away!

The years went flashing by her
And she visited her son,
And the grandson she adored
Who sat there playing with his gun,
But the paper lay there open
With a picture on page five,
Of a Spitfire that had landed,
And the pilot was alive!

‘Yes, I saw that, ' murmured Duncan,
‘And his name is just like ours,
He's some nut who just flew in,
Said he's from out among the stars.'
Then the widow Jenny started
And she said: ‘It just can't be!
But why's a Spitfire landing here
In 1983? '