My uncle, Ronnie Chappell, was a navigator in WW2, and when I was growing up in the 60's he would often sing a few of his RAF songs after he'd had a few drinks. I suspect he cleaned them up for my young ears, but there were a few memorable lines and I would love to know more about their beginnings. One of them was sung to the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, and began; "Flying over Germany at 40 thousand feet, dropping bombs on Hitler well it really was a treat" Another began, " I went to gay paris, to see a French lady, Tatooed from head to knee, and on her back was a Union Jack, so I paid her 10 cents more" Any information would be great.
Loads of raf songs . My bomber flies over the ocean , ops in a wimpey, we fly Lancaster bombers . We are a bomber crew , we’ve come from OTU There are several versions of your first song, we’re flying flying fortresses is the most , if you google it as that name it should pop up and your second one , the tattooed lady is naval in origin , again with many variations . Look up Lydia the tattooed lady . Written in 1939 but it’s a cleaned up version of the much olde naval original in reality Not all are bawdy , ops in a wimpy is clean , ops in a wimpy , ditto , who’ll come on ops in a winpey with me and then a stupid pilot flew her over Germany up came the flak like a Xmas tree and the rear gunner sang as he reached out for his parachute - who’ll come on ops in a wimpy with me etc We fly Lancaster bombers has a few swear words, to wit , we fly through bags of shit and the eggs may miss the goods yards but they fuck up poor old Hamm and they’ll take the bloody issue and stuff it up your arse We are a bomber crew is pretty clean/ ish : the last verse is : we are a bomber crew , we’ve come from otu what can you be , ditto , oh I can be the pitot repeat ; I can’t fly this fucking thing , repeat , then through all the previous stated crew positions ; bomb Aimer - left left steady dummy run ( or back a bit ) engineer - the starboard outers running rough , navigator what’s the bloody / fucking course for base , wireless op , dah dah dah dah dah dah dit, mid upper, fighter fighter corkscrew port , rear gunner - Jesus Christ its bloody / fucking cold
Hi Jonheyworth, many thanks for your post and sorry for the slow reply, we've had a few domestic upheavals here. I checked out your song suggestions and although they seem a likely fit they don't quite match. I'm wondering if this is because my uncle was just a terrible singer, but I don't think so! He did a year service in S.Africa 1942 - 43 and might have picked up some songs there, but the ones I remember all sounded like the later bombing of Germany. i will try to do some more research on exactly which planes he served and where they were flew from. Thanks
Remembered another one ; We fly Lancaster bombers We fly through bags of shit Flak bursts and concentrations And we’re very often hit So when we drop our ballox We do not give a damn The bombs may miss the goods yards But the fuck up poor old Hamm And when the weathers shitty And the winds are all to hell The navigators ballsed up The r/t s ballsed as well We think of all the popsies We’ve laid in days gone by And curse the stupid bastards Who taught us how to fly And when you get to hades It’s just like SHQ There’s lots of stooges sitting With fuck all else to do They’ll ask you for your flimsys Your target maps and pass Then take the bloody issue And stuff it up your arse And if you get to heaven St Peter will enquire Did you just drop a cookie Or start some damn great fire And when you hear the angels Tapping out their faultless Morse You’ll know then that your QDM Was a reciprocal course
Hi Jonhey. I like that one. Very colourful. Any idea what my uncle might have been singing to the tune of Battle Hymn of the Republic? thanks
The only one that fits that is : “ flying flying fortresses “ We’re flying fortresses at 40000 feet. X 3 With tons of ammunition but a teeny weeny bomb . Oh where shall we drop it x3 before we fly back home ? We’re flying Avro Lancasters at zero zero feet x3 with fuck all ammunition and a bastard great big bomb . We know where to drop it x3 and then we’ll fly back home
