My Grandfather Hated The Germans by Micca


Micca's Comments:  As a reaction to the "Green fields of France" and all those deaths in the first world war, this is a song about my grandad who did come back; all the places are real and the events are surreal.  The tunes are mostly Tom Paxton's "Jimmy Newman" for the verses and "Dinah and her Villikins" for the limericks.  Hope you like it.

My Grandfather hated the Germans 
And when asked why this was his retort 
There were too many snipers 
In the Salient at Wipers 
Trying to cut my life short

(Verse 1)
He went out to France in 1915 
A man with the Connaught Rangers 
To fight with the Kaiser who he'd never seen 
And in the defence of some strangers 
But the times they were hard there was no work around 
And the Army gave cash in your fist 
You didn't need much yourself, it was "all found" 
So Grandfather went to enlist 

My Grandfather hated the Germans 
And when asked why this was his retort 
There were too many mines 
Underground at Messines 
Trying to cut my life short 

(Verse 2)
He slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack 
With thousands of mates going to work 
And was one of the hundred that made the walk back 
When the mincing machine'd done its work 
They were pulled from the line to a place called Maubeuge 
A village not far from the lines 
Where Grandad discovered that Boutel Vin Rouge 
Was the way that the French ordered wine

My Grandfather hated the Germans 
And when asked why this was his retort 
There were too many Krauts 
With noses like snouts 
Trying to cut my life short

(Verse 3)
He stayed pissed as a ferret while they formed a new squad 
Out of outfits that were cut to pieces 
And he ran a card school teaching green as the sod 
Young men how to grow new fleeces 
Then the Somme came along on a fine summer day 
And he's nicked by a bullet quite early 
And a nose full of gas kept him out of the way 
As his unit was mown like the barley

My Grandfather hated the Germans 
And when asked why this was his retort 
There were too many Junkers 
Sitting in bunkers 
Trying to cut my life short

(Verse 4)
He's out of the line for a year in support 
Training young men how to die 
And how to stay fit and to enjoy your sport 
But never to ask yourself why 
He kept himself alive until 1918 
Tho' around him the shells skip and dance 
But was buried alive in a dugout latrine 
By a shell in the German advance

My Grandfather hated the Germans 
And when asked why he said it was fit 
With the war nearly done 
A shell from a Hun 
Dropped me up to my neck in the dirt

My Grandad went off to the fighting 
But survived and came back to us all 
He loved Mozart and Bach 
Wagner , Mahler and Sachs 
But he didn't like Germans at all! 

Michael A. Patterson