FAR FAR FROM YPRES
FIRST HALF
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An ploys an' kisses get their chance,
But Lachlan, man, the place I see
Is whaur the auld kist used tae be,
An' the lichts o' Hallowe'en in France
Narrator
With static actions like the Somme offensive one would imagine that the Scottish soldier had every reason to hate their enemy but the songs did not reflect this. Most of the bitterness was directed at their superiors and few mention the enemy across No Man’s Land.
Fritzy Boy 3D
Keep your head down, Fritzy Boy,
Keep your head down, Fritzy Boy,
Last night by the pale moonlight
We saw you, we saw you.
You were mending
Your broken wire.
When we opened with rapid fire.
If you want to see your 'vater'
And your Vaterland'
Keep your head down, Fritzy Boy!
Keep your head down, Fritzy Boy,
Keep your head down, Fritzy Boy,
Last night by the pale moonlight
We saw you, we saw you.
You were mending
Your broken wire.
When we opened with rapid fire.
If you want to see your 'vater'
And your Vaterland'
Keep your head down, Fritzy Boy!
If you want the sergeant major
I know where he is, I know where he is, I know where he is
If you want the sergeant major
I know where he is
He’s stealin’ all the privates’ rum
I’ve seen him……………stealin’ all the privates’ rum
I’ve seen him……………stealin’ all the privates’ rum
If you want to find the C.O.
I know where he is, I know where he is, I know where he is
If you want to find the C.O.
I know where he is,
He’s down in the deep dug out
I’ve seen him, I’ve seen him, down in the deep dug out
I’ve seen him, I’ve seen him, down in the deep dug out
If you want (Slower Gtr) the old battalion
We know where they are, we know where they are, we know where they are
If you want the old battalion
We know where they are.
*They're hanging on the old barbed wire.
We've seen 'em , we’ve seen 'em
Hanging on the old barbed wire.
We've seen 'em, we’ve seen 'em
Hanging on the old barbed wire.
Narrator
Back in Britain, many women took over the “men’s” jobs and Emmeline Pankhurst instructed the Suffragettes to stop their campaign of reform to support, in every way, the government and its war effort. Women filled many jobs, brought into existence by wartime needs and, as a result, the number of women employed, increased from 3.2 million in July 1914, to 4.8 million in January 1918. Women worked in government departments, as clerical workers, conductors on trams and buses and quarter of a million worked on the land. The greatest increase of women workers was in engineering and 700,000 of these women worked in the highly dangerous munitions industry. Industries that had previously excluded women now welcomed them. At the same time, these same women were expected to look after their families and maintain their support for their sons and daughters involved in the fighting abroad. Many of these soldiers were obviously under age and ill prepared for the severity of the conditions.
Keep the Home Fires Burning
They were summoned from the hillside,
They were called in from the glen,
And the Country found them ready
At the stirring call for men.
Let no tears add to their hardship,
As the Soldiers pass along
And although your heart is breaking,
Make it sing this cheery song.
Chorus
Keep the Home-fires burning,
While your hearts are yearning,
Though your lads are far away
They dream of Home;
There's a silver lining
Through the dark cloud shining,
Turn the dark cloud inside out,
Till the boys come Home.
Over seas there came a pleading,
"Help a Nation in distress!"
And we gave our glorious laddies,
Honor made us do no less.
For no gallant Son of Freedom
To a tyrant's yoke should bend,
And a noble heart must answer
To the sacred call of "Friend!"
Chorus
Keep the Home-fires burning,
While your hearts are yearning,
Though your lads are far away
They dream of Home;
There's a silver lining
Through the dark cloud shining,
Turn the dark cloud inside out,
Till the boys come Home.
Narrator
In this year when our attention is drawn towards the Commonwealth of Nations there is no difficulty in finding a bond between the Empire forces of the Great War and the Scots. Over 2.5 million men served in the armies of the Dominions during WW1 and ex patriot Scots were an integral part of these forces. The dead and wounded in South Africa numbered 19,000, India, 128,000, Canada, 208,000, New Zealand, 58,000 and Australia, 208,000. Although 60,000 Australians died in the war the Australians themselves are most conscious of the disaster that was Gallipoli. On April 25th 1915 the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, "the ANZACS", landed on the Aegean coast, north of their original target. This was the start of the disastrous Gallipoli campaign where the fault, from many historians, was attributed to the incompetence of officers, many of them British, commanding the Australian troops and their disregard for casualties.
And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda
Now when I was a young man, I carried me pack, and I lived the free life of a rover
From the Murray's green basin to the dusty outback, well, I waltzed my Matilda all over.
Then in 1915, my country said son, It's time you stopped rambling, there's work to be done.
So they gave me a tin hat, and they gave me a gun, and they marched me away to the war.
And the band played Waltzing Matilda, as the ship pulled away from the quay
And amidst all the cheers, the flag-waving and tears, we sailed off for Gallipoli
And how well I remember that terrible day, how our blood stained the sand and the water
And of how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay, we were butchered like lambs at the slaughter.
Johnny Turk he was waiting, he'd primed himself well. He shower'd us with bullets,
And he rained us with shell. And in five minutes flat, he'd blown us all to hell
Nearly blew us right back to Australia.
And the band played Waltzing Matilda, when we stopped to bury our slain.
We buried ours, and the Turks buried theirs, then we started all over again.
And those that were left, well we tried to survive, in that mad world of blood, death and fire
And for ten weary weeks, I kept myself alive, though around me the corpses piled higher
Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over head, and when I woke up in my hospital bed,
And saw what it had done, well I wished I was dead. Never knew there was worse things than dyin'.
And I'll go no more waltzing Matilda, all around the green bush far and free
To hump tent and pegs, a man needs both legs-no more waltzing Matilda for me.