The Lisbon Maru
Submitted by COFEPOW Member Ken Agar
There are many tales of heroes as there are in every war
Stories of men who turned the tide and died in the battle's roar
But it's easy to die a hero in a bombshell's blinding light
This a tale of Death that was slow in the dark for a day and a night
It was the morning roll-call on the hell ship Lisbon Maru
On the first day of October in nineteen forty-two
Came a sudden dull explosion and the old ship lifted and lurched
A thousand hearts stopped beating and a thousand voices cursed
The lights grew dim and faded as the engines ceased to turn
A whisper through the crowded hold "Torpedoed" back in the stern
The ship was already sinking taking a gradual list
We heard a whining, hissing roar, a second torpedo had missed
The guns were roaring above us shooting at God knows what
Rifles were pointing down the hold - it was getting rather hot
The warships came alongside and took the Japs away
They battened down the hatches, it seemed we were to stay
We listened to the tapping that came from the hold ahead
Report to the Senior Officer that they had two men dead
"For Christ's sake stop that knocking" came a tortured strangled
cry
"We have one dead right here with us and there's plenty more to die"
Hour after hour went slowly by and the list grew gradually worse
Till the ship lay over and tilted back like a tired wounded horse
And so we lay all day and night, no food, no water or air
Silent except for a bitter curse or a muttered fervent prayer
Down in the hold amidships fighting the rising sea
Were the men of the first and finest, the Royal Artillery
Throughout the night the gunners pumped keeping a killing pace
As one man fell unconscious another jumped to his place
The ship gave a sudden drunken lurch as the bulkhead groaned and gave
Meanwhile in the biggest hold the 'Midds" were standing by
The 'Diehards' armed with butcher's knives decided not to die
The pumping stopped as the sea rushed in and the hold was a watery grave
Came a sudden flash of sunlight and a rousing maddening shout
Twelve hundred men were on the move "By God! We're going out"
There were screams and shouts and rifle shots as Hell broke loose on top
But this was the British Army that the Japs could never stop
They tore the hatch off Number One to set the Navy free
And those boys climbed out on the deck to join the jamboree
The middle hold was nearly full when the door was opened wide
A few men staggered to the deck, the rest were still inside….
There were still a few Jap sentries who were making a bit of a show
But the boys soon put them on their way to the place where Japs should
go
The stern of the ship was out of sight, the bow was standing high
The deck was nearly upright - the call was "swim or die"
That this was attempted murder was as plain as it could be
There were seven ships around the wreck shooting at men in the sea
Japan had blundered once again, the British were hard to kill
Many had lived to tell the tale and tell the tale we will!
When you tell the story, never forget to quote
The heroes of the middle hold who kept the ship afloat
Remember those gallant gunners who gave all they could give
True to their old tradition, they died that others might live
Remember the Yellow Nimura and his murderous cowardly lot
The rats who ran from a sinking ship, the drowning men who were shot
Remember the day we reached Shanghai, the comrades we never met
Remember the strutting, grinning guards, REMEMBER lest we forget
Searching along that windswept quay for well-known friendly faces
And there in the ranks, where they should be, HUNDREDS of empty places
So on the Day of Reckoning if "mercy" should be their cry
The beast must be ruled by the law of the beast
THE RULE OF AN EYE FOR AN EYE
We will look to the east in the morning and there we shall see in the
sky
The march of the murdered hundreds - the dead that shall never die
We need not fear the Germans and to hell with the Japanese
There'll always be an England while there are men like these
By J W Bowen, ex-Bombardier RA
Ken
Agar's Dad, William
who survived the sinking of the 'Lisbon Maru'