Over the last sixty years I have collected items of interest, poetry etc and I have started to put them into book form. One piece of poetry that I was given in Borneo in 1965 was 'The Man With The Rifle Knows' and I cannot find it anywhere among my paperwork. If anyone has a copy of this poem I would be grateful if you would scan it and let me have it. My email address is rmhayes@blueyonder.co.uk Thank you in anticipation.
Men may argue forever on what wins their wars, and welter in cons and pros, And seek for the answer at history's doors, but the man with the rifle knows.
He must stand on the ground on his own two feet and he's never in doubt when it's won. If it's won he's there, if hes not it's defeat; that's his test when the fighting is done.
When he carries the fight, it's not with a roar of armoured wings spitting death. It's creep and crawl on the earthen floor butt down and holding his breath.
Saving his strength for the last low rush; grenade throwing and bayonet thrust. And the whispered prayer before he goes in of a man who does what he must.
And when he's attacked, he cant zoom away when the shells fill the world with their sound. He stays where he is, loosens his spade, and digs his defence in the ground.
That ground isn't ours till he's there in the flesh; not a gadget, or a bomb, but a man, He's the answer to theories which start afresh with each peace since war began.
So let the wide circle of argument rage on what wins as man comes and goes. Many new theories may hold centre stage, but the man with the rifle knows.