Lest we forget...11.11.13
where a plane sank in the sea
taking Seargeant Gooch down with it
on that day in ’43.
He was my Grandma’s brother -
(christened Daniel, known as Jim)
- an RAF air gunner.
Did he think it would be him
who would manage to cheat death
and carry on ‘til conflict’s end?
Did he hope to dodge the gunfire
and a coffin, like his friends?
They only found the pilot:
just one body, washed to shore,
but all the others disappeared
and Jim was just one more.
No cross, no grave for him –
only a poppy, once a year
in the corner of a photoframe,
the picture still so dear.
With Grandma’s death, the ritual ends…
Jim’s memory fades away.
Yet maybe not, for here it is
for you to read today.
RAF Sergeant Daniel Last Gooch was based with 100 squadron
at RAF Grimsby. His plane, a Lancaster , ED599
and radio sign HW-S, went down over the sea after flying between Bordeaux and Cherbourg
on the 4 March 1943. No trace of the plane was ever found, though the pilot’s
body was recovered some 30 miles away and buried in France . It is assumed that the crew
went down with the plane.