Sunday, 23 November 2014

Poem ~ Pumpkin Seed Plane - Monday, 23 November 1914


Source: File: RumplerTaubeInFlight.jpg, 2014. Etrich Taube. [online] (updated July 30 2014)  Available at: <http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etrich_Taube> Accessed: 23 November 2014].

Some travellers,
From Soissons,
Arriving in Paris,
Conveyed a tale
To the French paper,
Petit Parisien.

That on Saturday morning,
A German Taube
Type aeroplane,
Was seen at 10 a.m.
Flying above Soissons -
With intentions of seeking
Out some French batteries.

The Taube,
Also called ‘The Dove,’
Was a stable winged,
Pre war built craft -
Mostly employed
As a spotter plane.
Above 400 metres,
Their translucent form,
Made them hard to see.

Modelled, not on a bird,
But a simple pumpkin seed,
That floats in gentle spiral -
The type built of a single wing,
With edges angled back.

A nearby British flyer
Zoomed into the attack.
Diving on the Taube
Firing at its motor -
Flaying it with shrapnel.

By a volplane manoeuvre,
The enemy pilot attempted,
To reach his own lin
When a 75 mm shell,
Intercepted its course -
The craft crashed at Soissons.

At the site,
Of the burning Taube,
Was found inside
Two officers,
And a mechanic,
Terribly burnt to death.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1914. Aeroplane Brought Down. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 23 Nov. p.4. Col.2. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11241603/Daily-Telegraph-November-23-1914.html [Accessed: 23 November 2014].

Mann, J., 2014. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 23 November 2014). 



#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #ww1centenary #worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered

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