To the glorious memory of Sgt P.V.R SUTTON aged 24 years.
A2 BOM SQDN RAF.
Also his five comrades who lost their lives here through enemy action 31.7.1941
The memorial is erected on the spot in the Ashdown Forest , East Sussex., where their Wellington bomber crashed on it’s way back from a bombing mission to Cologne by the mother of the deceased.
This poem is for all of the above.
SO YOUNG SO CLOSE TO HOME
So young so close to home
Our freedom was your conscience
What do you make of the world you fought and died for?
Was your death no more than theft?
A life stolen. No court no justice to convict the thief.
Your memorial stands alone against wind and rain just as the country you fought for stood alone all those years ago.
You were so young and so close to home.
The flowers planted for you bloom so brightly each spring.
They die in sympathy for you come the winter snow.
Dear soul we owe you so much
For all the freedoms we take for granted each day
The Europe of today is united we are proud to say
You carried that dream in your heart that day you took off in the summer of 1941.
And while we all bicker about our petty differences your dream's lie still never to be fulfilled.
Never the less we thank you for our freedom today
We pay our respects at the spot where your memory lays
You died for all of us that fateful day
You maybe gone but your sacrifice will never fade
