D Day Dodgers

Discussion in 'Italy' started by BeppoSapone, Aug 30, 2004.

  1. BeppoSapone

    BeppoSapone Senior Member

  2. Kieron Hill

    Kieron Hill Senior Member

    Cheers Beppo!

    I've read so much about this song it was
    great to hear.

    Thanks
    Kieron
     
  3. Kiwiwriter

    Kiwiwriter Very Senior Member

    That's the only version of "Lili Marlene" that I know.

    The writer of the original song died last year.
     
  4. BeppoSapone

    BeppoSapone Senior Member

    Originally posted by Kiwiwriter@Aug 30 2004, 03:41 PM
    That's the only version of "Lili Marlene" that I know.

    The writer of the original song died last year.
    [post=27859]Quoted post[/post]


    He was Hamish Hamilton. He also wrote the well known song about the 51st Highland Division leaving Sicily to return to Britain to take part in the Normandy landings. To the tune "Farewell to the Creeks"
     
  5. BeppoSapone

    BeppoSapone Senior Member

    Originally posted by kieron hill@Aug 30 2004, 03:26 PM
    Cheers Beppo!

    I've read so much about this song it was
    great to hear.

    Thanks
    Kieron
    [post=27856]Quoted post[/post]


    There are very many versions Kieron. Put "D Day Dodgers" into a search engine.
     
  6. BeppoSapone

    BeppoSapone Senior Member

     
  7. BeppoSapone

    BeppoSapone Senior Member

    Originally posted by BeppoSapone+Aug 30 2004, 03:48 PM-->(BeppoSapone @ Aug 30 2004, 03:48 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteBegin-kieron hill@Aug 30 2004, 03:26 PM
    Cheers Beppo!

    I've read so much about this song it was
    great to hear.

    Thanks
    Kieron
    [post=27856]Quoted post[/post]


    There are very many versions Kieron. Put "D Day Dodgers" into a search engine.
    [post=27862]Quoted post[/post]
    [/b]
    Here is another:

    http://www.warlinks.com/jackcull/ddodgers.htm
     
  8. Kiwiwriter

    Kiwiwriter Very Senior Member

    Originally posted by BeppoSapone+Aug 30 2004, 04:46 PM-->(BeppoSapone @ Aug 30 2004, 04:46 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteBegin-Kiwiwriter@Aug 30 2004, 03:41 PM
    That's the only version of "Lili Marlene" that I know.

    The writer of the original song died last year.
    [post=27859]Quoted post[/post]


    He was Hamish Hamilton. He also wrote the well known song about the 51st Highland Division leaving Sicily to return to Britain to take part in the Normandy landings. To the tune "Farewell to the Creeks"
    [post=27861]Quoted post[/post]
    [/b]

    I think I know that song:

    "So fare ye well ye bloody hills
    Fare ye well, ye valley and shaw.
    There's none who'll mourn the kyles of ye
    Puir bloody Jocks are weary."
     
  9. BeppoSapone

    BeppoSapone Senior Member

    He was Hamish Henderson. He also wrote the well known song about the 51st Highland Division leaving Sicily to return to Britain to take part in the Normandy landings. To the tune "Farewell to the Creeks"
    [post=27861]Quoted post[/post]
    [/quote]


    I think I know that song:

    "So fare ye well ye bloody hills
    Fare ye well, ye valley and shaw.
    There's none who'll mourn the kyles of ye
    Puir bloody Jocks are weary."
    [post=27886]Quoted post[/post]
    [/quote]

    That's the one. However, like the "D Day Dodgers" the words can vary a bit.

    Here is the whole thing:

    http://mysongbook.de/msb/songs/f/fawelsic.html
     
  10. BeppoSapone

    BeppoSapone Senior Member

    That's the one. However, like the "D Day Dodgers" the words can vary a bit.

    Here is the whole thing:

    http://mysongbook.de/msb/songs/f/fawelsic.html
    [post=27887]Quoted post[/post]
    [/quote]


    Maybe Malcolm, or one of the other Scots members, can translate?
     
  11. MalcolmII

    MalcolmII Senior Member

    I had the honour of meeting Hamish when he worked at The School of Scottish Studies at Edinburgh Uni and I have sung both songs. A translation, now there's a challenge Tony.
    Aye
    Malcolm
     
  12. MalcolmII

    MalcolmII Senior Member

  13. morse1001

    morse1001 Very Senior Member

    Here is a version sang by the Argyles(AKA the Agile and Suffering Highlanders) in Italy and comments by "Mad" Mitch!!!!


    As the evening wore on I felt more and more relaxed in their
    company, and as visitors called in from other companies and
    one or two started to sing I realized that here, at last, I was
    enjoying what I had read about, that camaraderie which comes
    on the eve of battle and is part of the heritage of the fighting
    soldier. One of the songs was so poignant that I ultimately wrote
    the words down. It was sung to the tune of the German Afrika
    Korps song Lili Marlene and it ran:

    We’re the D-day Dodgers out in Italy,
    Always drinking the vino and always on the spree
    Eight Army Shirkers and the yanks,
    We live in Rome and dodge the tanks –
    We are the D-day Dodgers,
    The boys whom D-Day dodged

    We Hope the boys in France will soon be getting leave
    After six months service, it’s a shame they are not relived
    We can carry on for two or three more years
    And nobody need shed any tears –
    For we’re the D-day Dodgers
    Out in Italy

    If you look round the mountains through the mud and rain,
    You'll see rows of crosses, some which bear no name.
    Heartbreak and toils and suffering gone,
    The boys beneath, they linger on—
    They were some of the D-Day dodgers
    And they're still in Italy.


    There were several versions of this song, varying in ribaldry, but they all expressed the same bitterness. The 8th Army felt that its thankless task – as Churchill put it, “dragging the hot rake of war up the length of Italy” – was unappreciated at home, where all eyes had been upon D-day in Normandy and the advance into Germany.


    Mitchell, Lt Col Colin, Having Been A Soldier, Hamish Hamilton, London, 1969 PP 34-5
     
  14. morse1001

    morse1001 Very Senior Member

    As sung by The McCalmans

    Tune: Farewell to the Creeks

    I have on tape the version by the McCalmans. I also have a version of "Farewell to the Creeks by the Corries, what is errie is that you can hear the sound of the feet of of the Audience marching in time to the tune.


    Unfortunately I do not software to convert to MP3

    I also have on an album "the D-day dodgers" as sung by the Spinners.

    However, all three tunes are, for me at least, very powerful ones
     

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