Salonika, item 22

• December 22, 2016 21:45:43 Sue Bryant

  2

   

  WHO WON THE WAR, AND WHY (continued)

   

  It’s a hell of a country excuse me

    When I thinks of all I’ve gone through

  In the country they calls Macedonia

    Well my language it ain’t fit for you

  We stewed in the Sun in the Summer

    We froze in the cold winter nights

  At a hundred and four with “DINGEY”

    We didn’t enjoy ourselves quite

   

  And each day we read in the papers

    How the Boys out there in the West

  With their Tanks and Planes and Gas shells

    Were spoiling old Fritz’s rest

  Whilst we out in Macedonia

    Were doing ourselves real fine

  Yes, with Dysentery, dingey & such like

    M & D, Caster Oil and Quinine

   

  Well we stuck it as best we were able

    We went into dock and came out

  Did “Con Camps” and “Rest Camps”, and stunts which

    As a Kid, you Knows nothing about

  Why, your Grandad once wangled the “Y” scheme

    And his prospects of “BLIGHTY” were gay

  But they rumbled he hadn’t MALARIA.

    So they gave him a “board,” marked him “A”

   

  Did I ever come home on Leave, Boy?

    Did I leave Salonique? Did I hell!

  Did you ever see an oyster

    Come out for a walk from his shell

  It was like that with us, we were fixtures

    We was in but we couldn’t get out

  And the chances we had of leaving

    Were nothing to shout about.

   

  The years went by, still we waited

    They said we was having a rest.

  Abasking all day in the sunshine

    Whilst the boy did the work on the west

  We’ll admit they was doing some “scrapping”

    And at times catching Fritz on the run

  But they never seemed to get nearer

    What we wanted to see. “The End.”

   

  You see we worked it out this way

    If we made Johnny Bulgar collapse

  We could tie the Turk up and he’d chuck it

    Then we might get to BLIGHTY perhaps

  ‘Course the Austrians, well, they’d be easy

    And without all the others the HUN

  Woudn’t stand very long on his lonesome

    And the blooming old war would be won

   

  Well we got fairly fed up with waiting

    So one day without any fuss

  We went out and “touzed” Johnny Bulgar

    We thought it was right up to us

  Gave him “one in the neck, a good ‘un”

    Got him groggy and well on the run

  I’m a fort night, he’d bucked the old sponge up

    And that’s how the war was won

   

  WRITTEN ON THE SIDE

   

  You’ve asked for a story you’ve got it

    Who won the war, now you can see

  Never mind what it says in the books, boy

    When you want the truth come to me

  Now you wants to know “why” we won it

    The reply you must surely perceive

  THE SALONICA FORCE, WON THE WAR, BOY

  ‘CAUSE THEY COUD’NT GET HOME ON LEAVE

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