“…at o-sixhundred hours tomorrow the bugler will march onto the 
barrack square; the moment he draws in his breath to blow reveille, I
want to see every last manjack of you out of bed…”—Sgt. Stokes
K.O.Y.L.I., 10.8.1941.*

Soon they had all gone,
senior form idols, conscripts,
volunteers, elder brothers
who had always led the way;
their crowded trains
like millepedes in distress.

Parents and lovers waving
them out of sight, turned,
linking arms into the blackout,
back home without a word.    Gone.
And there was nothing then
for us but follow.

This is your number, write home
and tell it them, stamp it on
all your kit, your brain, 
dreams, turnings in the night,
cling fast to it at dawn;
as the sun goes down remember it.

We interpreted their trail
of spent cases, jerrycans,
brewed-up tanks and trucks,
closing with an enemy we knew
only as black lines
marked on maps.


* K.O.Y.L.I. stands for the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, a distinguished 
light infantry regiment of the British Army. On personal memorabilia, service records, 
official correspondence, or war graves from this era, a date paired with "K.O.Y.L.I." typically 
denotes a key service milestone—such as an enlistment/deployment date, a casualty entry, 
or a daily log entry in a unit's War Diary.