Operation Tiger Tour

Three score and six summers ago

‘T was our parent’s generation

Which would destroy a mighty foe

With a daring operation.

Therefore to honor this great feat

Those soldiers’ cubs did come to see

And hear how Hitler’s men were beat

On beaches stormed to make men free.

So a miniature Overlord,

For sixty-niners and mates they’d got

To re-invade the Norman shore,

Was masterminded by Richard Bott.

Mobilizing chez Marian and Dick,

First in Paris fifty tigers land

To meet and eat and taste and pick

The best wine for the food at hand.

Thence followed a four day campaign:

La Tour Eiffel, La Gare d’Orsay,

With rations washed down with fine Champagne,

Seizing the Seine, and beaucoup musees.

Paris taken, this invasion in reverse

Marched towards the plages of Normandy,

Stopping to see an older conquest first,

Shown on the Bayeux Tapestry.

Our Longest Day ended with joy

As we dug into our new base camp,

The picturesque Chateau Balleroy,

A fairytale place most elegant.

From there we toured the fields of war,

Graves of British, Canadians and French,

And the many Americans who live no more,

Even the Germans who died in the trench.

Paratroopers, gliders, soldiers and sons,

Thousands of crosses and names of men,

Nurses and officers and unnamed ones

Beg us to never make war again.

Braving the deadly enemy fire

They came from the sky and the sea,

Pushing on and refusing to tire,

To reclaim France for Liberty.

On Gold, Juno, Sword and Utah

Like lemmings they rushed up the sand

And built a port at Omaha

To land supplies and take command.

May this battle fought with Germany

Help us to learn that war must cease,

That man can live in harmony

And share this beauteous earth in peace.