The Concrete Road Brian Hooper, March 2006
It's a clear view to Cowes and to Pompey's new tower,
there's all sorts of craft sailing busily by;
I came here at eighteen and now that I'm eighty
I've come here again for a proper goodbye
to the old concrete road,
the long concrete roadway to France.
Goodbye to comrades who never made twenty,
who never made demob but left England here;
let your dog off the lead, he can sniff round the ruins,
perhaps he'll smell courage, perhaps he'll smell fear
on the old concrete road,
where a light never showed,
on the long concrete roadway to France.
There's a notice explaining the D-Day remains;
the wind makes my eyes water, memories stir.
There's a leaflet for free if you want to know more,
but I know it all, at eighteen I was there
on the old concrete road,
where a light never showed,
where we all spoke in code,
on the long concrete roadway to France.
I could tell you some tales about Mulberry Harbours,
the things that they harboured the sergeants knew well;
a few local girls, right where your dog just piddled,
well, Tommy's a devil when he's posted to hell,
down the old concrete road,
where a light never showed,
where we all spoke in code,
where the landing craft load,
on the long concrete roadway to France.
Now the sea laps away at this old bit of concrete,
the gorse and the bramble come in from the west;
so I'll say goodbye now to ruins and reminders,
the world must remember, but my ghosts can rest
on the old concrete road,
where a light never showed,
where we all spoke in code,
where the landing craft load,
now let nature erode
the long concrete roadway to France.
(repeat first verse)
Less than half a mile along the beach from the car park at Lepe, at the seaward end of Southampton Water, but missed by most visitors, are the remains of an extraordinary military operation. Mulberry Harbours were built and launched there in preparation for the D-Day landings, apparently without coming to the notice of the enemy.
A survivor aged 18 at the time would have been 80 in the summer of 2006, when this song came to me.
