On Choral Shores

Hail of Bullets

Tons of high explosives
Plastering the reefs
Amphtracs approaching
Offloading LST's
Establishing the beachheads
Perimeter secured
Distant laying battleships
Roaring whilst harboured

Barbed wire and minefields
Concrete obstacles
Cautiously proceeding
Behind armoured vehicles
Say farewell to their comrades
Left in blood red waves
A sudden hail of metal
From camouflaged caves

Barrels of all calibres
Decimate the ranks
Concentrated fire
Hidden Ha Go tanks
Airborne hara-kiri
Devastating wings
Naval bombardments
Ever ongoing

Shermans cracking pillboxes
Grinding spider holes
Flamethrowers spewing
Burn nests on these atolls
Corsairs sending rockets
Drive the enemy back
Launch in desperation
Vicious counterattack

Storming on a noxious stew
Of putrefying dead
Fierce hand-to-hand combat
Charge with bayonet

Severed heads, blackened flesh
Blood, bones, filth, and gore
Torn cadavers exposing
The gruesome face of war

Insulate choral shores