After Giarabub

Tags

18th Brigade 7th Div 2nd AIF, 2nd Australian Imperial Force, 7th Division 2nd AIF, Battle of Giarabub, Cyrenaica, Giarabub, Giarabub Fortress, Giarabub Oasis, Italians in WW2, poem, poetry, Siege of Giarabub, Tamma Heights

𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐆𝐢𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐮𝐛

Over silent sons blows the desert dust.
Over guns long stilled — over rifles’ rust.
To a sacred God the Sirocco moans
Of the sacrifice — of the shared bleached bones,
Where the Roman raised a defiant hand,
And is buried deep, neath a shroud of sand.

Was a victory — a first glimpse of Hell,
As a battle won — as a fortress fell
By an emerald grove and a sapphire jewel
In the great Sahara — a precious pool.

And the ones who fought and the ones who died
They have met perhaps on the other side —
The Australian boys from across the sea;
The reluctant soldiers of Italy.

— D.N. O’Brien

Australians of the 18th Brigade 7th Division raise their colours over the fortress of Giarabub 21st march 1941.