"In other Words" - a funny RFC song

[Olham]

In Other Words RFC squadron song

 

As a pilot in France I chanced over the lines

And there I met an Albatros Scout.

I t seems that he saw me, or so I presumed,

His manueuvres left small room for doubt.

He sat on my tail without further delay,

Of my subsequent action I think I might say -

 

My turns approximated to the vertical,

I deemed it most judicious to recede.

I frequently gyrated on my axis

And obtained colossal atmospheric speed.

O descended with unparalled momentum

My propeller's point of rupture I surpassed,

And performed the most astounding evolutions -

In other words - I SPLIT-ASSED!

 

And here is once again the famous song of 54 Sqdn:

We Haven't Got a Hope in the Morning

Song by 54 Squadron, RFC

 

When you soar in the air on a Spowith Scout

And you're scrapping with a Hun and your gun cuts out

Well, you stuff down your nose 'til your plugs fall out

Cos you haven't got a hope in the morning.

 

For a barman woke me from my bed

I had a thick night and a very sore head

And I said to myself, to myself I said

'Oh! We haven't got a hope in the morning!

 

We were escorting Twenty-Two.

Hadn't a notion what to do,

So we shot down a Hun and an FE too!

Cos they hadn't got a hope in the morning.

 

We went to Cambrai all in vain

The FE's sais, 'We must explain,

Our cameras broke; we must do it again,'

Oh! we haven't got a hope in the morning!

 

[gaw]

jeez olham............where do you come up with this stuff? classic.........thanks

[UK_Widowmaker]

It's a strange way to keep up Morale...singing songs like that isnt it?

[Olham]

Indeed, Widowmaker - and that wasn't the most black one.

There was one about a guy who jumped with no parachute from 14.000 feet,

smashing on the runway like a doll filled with strawberry jam.

THAT one was so dark I didn't post it.

 

After reading some about those days, I am thinking more and more, that the

"common man" in those days was a lot harder in many ways.

Not only tougher, but I really mean "harder" - against others and much against themselves.

And they surely were far less fastidious.

Edited May 31, 2011 by Olham

[Hasse Wind]

An extremely bloody war that lasts so many years must leave its mark on everybody. This is of course reflected in the period music. And look at all the dystopic literature and films that were made after the war in 1920's and 1930's.

 

A common man in the early 20th century Europe (and North America) lived in much harsher conditions than what we are used to. Just look at the conditions factory workers had to work in, and the filthy slums they lived in. The ordinary men who went to war in 1914 were used to harsh living, but even then the war was a completely horrible experience for most of them.

[Dej]

The British and their colonial brethren had a very much stiffer upper lip than is nowadays the norm

[UK_Widowmaker]

Probably just as well!...As it was a colonial, stiff upper lip...that sent millions of young men to their deaths

[RAF_Louvert]

.

 

Two of the volumes to be included in the next WWI Books download I'm putting together are Great War song books. Here is a sample from one, and the title should be very familiar to anyone who's read "No Parachute".

 

 

 

 

When death is a way of life year after year, it helps if one can find a way to laugh at it.

 

.

[Olham]

Yes, I read it in "No Parachute!". I was wondering, why the "Hun" had a Lewis gun???

[Hasse Wind]

I suppose it's artistic license, Olham.

[Olham]

Yeah, maybe they didn't know the name of the German gun.

The irony is, that the famous "Spandau" was a Maxim - a British Mg with German improvements.

[Hasse Wind]

I'm pretty sure they did know the name. It wasn't exactly top secret information, and I imagine the British pilots and observers were lectured about their enemies' equipment, at least a little bit. "Know your enemy", and all that stuff. When I was in the army (though obviously I wasn't in any WW1 era army!), we had some lectures about our potential enemies' most important weapon systems and their use, so that we'd know how they behaved if we some day had to meet them in battle.

[33LIMA]

I'm pretty sure they did know the name. It wasn't exactly top secret information, and I imagine the British pilots and observers were lectured about their enemies' equipment, at least a little bit. "Know your enemy", and all that stuff. When I was in the army (though obviously I wasn't in any WW1 era army!), we had some lectures about our potential enemies' most important weapon systems and their use, so that we'd know how they behaved if we some day had to meet them in battle.

 

Soldiers (or airmen) always have more pressing concerns than using the correct appelations for their own kit, let alone their enemy's, whether they know them or not. In my day, my rifle's designation was plain to see, for anyone who cared to look, stamped on the receiver - 'RIFLE, 7.62mm, L1A1'. But anyone who called it that, would have been stared at, as if they'd just landed from Mars - it was 'THE' SLR, just as the Sterling was 'THE' SMG and the L7 was 'THE' GPMG (pronounced 'Gimpy'). So no surprises, then, that Allied troops in Normandv, and NW Europe generally, invariably referred to MG42s (and probably MG34s as well) as 'Spandaus', too.

Edited May 31, 2011 by 33LIMA