Lie in the dark and listen.

It's clear tonight so they're flying high,

Hundreds of them, thousands perhaps,

Riding the icy, moonlit sky.

Men, machinery, bombs and maps,

Altimeters and guns and charts,

Coffee, sandwiches, fleece-lined boots,

Bones and muscles and minds and hearts,

English saplings with English roots

Deep in the earth they've left below.

Lie in the dark and let them go;

Lie in the dark and listen.

 

Lie in the dark and listen.

They're going over in waves and waves

High above villages, hills and streams,

Country churches and little graves

And little citizen's worried dreams;

Very soon they'll have reached the sea.

Lie in the dark and let them go

Theirs is a world we'll never know.

Lie in the dark and listen.

 

 

And far below them will lie the bays

And cliffs and sands where they used to be

Taken for summer holidays.

Lie in the dark and let them go

Theirs is a world we'll never know.

Lie in the dark and listen.

 

Lie in the dark and listen.

City magnates and steel contractors,

Factory workers and politicians

Soft hysterical little actors,

Ballet dancers, reserved musicians,

Safe in your warm civilian beds.

 

Count your profits and count your sheep

Life is passing above your heads,

Just turn over and try to sleep.

Lie in the dark and let them go;

There's one debt you'll forever owe,

Lie in the dark and listen.