In common with many other world War two airmen, Harold Bennett, a former pilot and flying instructor, has fond memories of many happy hours spent in the officers mess, where he and his fellow aviators would entertain one another by reciting and singing a wide variety of songs and rhymes, some of which were well known to all the Armed Forces (such as The Quartermaster's Stores) but many of which had lyrics specifically adapted by those serving in the Royal Air Force.
After approaching his ex-RAF colleagues and demanding that they trawl what remained of their grey matter for suitable material, he duly set about the task of compiling the hundreds of songs they managed to remember ... and the result is this excellent collection, containing many of the wartime airmen's favourites. Harold claims to have been reduced to a state of hysterical laughter on many occasions in the course of compiling it.
Former airmen will need no introduction to these rampant rhymes but they may come as something of an eye-opener for the uninitiated. Many of them are very rude indeed but in the interests of historical accuracy we have reproduced them completely uncensored... so no complaints please! As Harold himself says, "they are not for the frail, the fraightfully posh or 'proper' gels" ... but they are great fun for everybody else!
Please note that this is a collection of lyri
| Nationality |
British |
| Pub Place |
Bognor Regis |
| Cover Price |
$9.95 |
| Height x Width |
8.3
inch |
| First Edition |
Yes |
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It is odd that two of us, Ted Bowles and I, wrote to the Editor of
Intercom at exactly the same time on the same subject: the 'dirty
ditties' and 'bawdy ballads' that were sung in Aircrew Messes during
World War 2. It had not occurred to me that I might land the job
of collecting the whole lot!
People have been most helpful in submitting a large amount of such
stuff. Many thanks to all, worldwide. Thanks in particular to Gordon
Collett who sent his hand-written "Wop/AG's Bible" of eighty or so
rude songs and to Gerhard Heilig of Vienna (who was in the RAF!)
who sent me another fortyish. I say "another" with some abandon,
because some songs exist in such a wide variety of versions that
they are virtually completely different from each other. Several
appear in this book in their various forms. Other semi-duplicates I
have merged, showing the variations in brackets.
At times it has been hard work typing them in. It's difficult to roll
around on the floor laughing and keep typing!
To save space, I have kept the presentation as simple as possible.
For example choruses (sung between verses) are simply labelled
CHORUS - with the words of the chorus in italics - easy!
It is strange that the biggest response related to a poem that is
probably not of RAF origin at all: 'Boidies' {see page 25). Nobody
seems to know where this rhyme originated, but hopefully the
version included here is now complete.
Thank you everybody who contributed!
Harold Bennett, November 2000
