WWII Clamdigger -
D-Day June 6th, 1944 at Home

Two Clamdigger Excerpts:

• D-Day At Home - Excitement of the Day
• Invasion Weather - A Poem by Leslie Nelson Jennings

D-Day at Home

Quick awakening in the morning when radio reports really registered – frantic phone calls to friends and neighbors – eating and dressing with one ear to the radio – cars drawn up along the road to carefully listen to the news – solemn, often worried faces – frequent tear-filled eyes – news boys calling out extras – blood banks filled to overflowing – churches open and constant streams of people, mostly women, silently coming and going – huge increases in the sale of War Bonds – stores and offices closed early – bars completely closed – advertisings in papers discontinued to make room for news – commeicials over the radio abondoned – unending programs of prayers, news reports, hymns, and patriotic music on the air – comedy programs completely converted to inspirational thoughts – prayers, unspoken and aloud – news – tears – everyone watchful – hoping.

Invasion Weather
by Leslie Nelson Jennings

No twenty miles were ever scanned
So anxiously, from land to land,
While expectation hangs on each
Ripple that washes up the beach.
In coves along the Dover side,
All trigger-tense and steady eyed,
Wait more than those who once returned
From Dunkirk when the Channel churned.
As time runs out reports flood in,
Bulletin after bulletin
Telling of gales, of mist or sun –
D-DAY has only just begun!
Those waves of landing craft that burst
The Western Wall are just the first,
Storm warnings still are pretty black –
We've only started to attack!
With Cherbourg taken, even more
Rough weather is in prospect for
Rommel, when we let loose along
The Coast of France, five million strong!

The above poem was written especially for the Clamdigger by Mr. Jennings. He is a well known poet and his poems have appeared in the Herald Tribune and he has had a book published. Mr. Jennings makes his home with the Avisons when he is in Rowayton.