The Longest Night

It was 10th May early that day
It was FA Cup final Saturday
Sixty thousand football fans
Headed home down Wembley way
Arsenal and Preston North End
Drew 1-1 that weekend
Who would've thought later they'd pray
Lives and not just goals are saved

Londoners get ready
To start a second shift
Others fill the dance halls
Or dine out at the Ritz

Routine dusk patrols were carried out
Around the coastlines before blackout
The radar stations holding fort
Pilots with nothing to report

Just an hour later
And heading towards the south coast
Hostiles from across the channel
Rapidly approach

Air raid sirens screaming out with fright
Signalling the start of the longest night
A thousand bombers lighting up the skies
You won't believe your eyes
People running for their lives

Sheltering down in the tubes
In their masses, they wait in queues
Suburban London comatosed
Battered bruised with a bloody nose
In defiance her spirits high
Despite such lows, she'll never die
Good old Blighty shakes her fist
From out of the rubble of the London Blitz

Fires like red hot lava
Rage throughout the night
Homes now gone forever
We count the cost come daylight

Air raid sirens screaming out with fright
Signalling the start of the longest night
A thousand bombers lighting up the skies
You won't believe your eyes

We are armed to endeavour
The consequence of war
Where nations pull together
United one and all

Air raid sirens screaming out with fright
Signalling the start of the longest night
A thousand bombers lighting up the skies
Well, you'll never believe, oh no

Air raid sirens screaming out with fright
Signalling the start of the longest night
A thousand bombers lighting up the skies
You won't believe your eyes
Well, you won't believe your eyes