During the fierce fighting at Festubert, towards the end of that month, they had learned the trench classic:—
(Sung mock seriously.)
"I want to go home, I want to go home,
The bullets they rattle, the cannon they roar,
I don't want to go up any more.
Take me over the seas,
Where the Alleman' cannot get me,
Oh, my, I don't want to die,
I want to go Home."
About that time they realised that there was little good in the jam issued to the troops in the field, so they joined in with the soldiers of the Imperial Army when those cheery fellows sang:—
"Tickler's Jam, Tickler's Jam,
How I love old Tickler's Jam;
Sent from England in one pound pots,
Packed it is in ten ton lots;
Every night when I'm asleep,
I'm dreaming that I am
Forcing my way through the Dardanelles,
With a pot of Tickler's Jam."
Next month they dared to carol (from the "Duck's Bill" salient at Givenchy) with "Fritz" only forty yards away:—
(Air—Hold Your Hand Out, Naughty Boy.)
"Keep your head down, Alleman'; keep your head down, Alleman',
Last night in the pale moonlight, I saw you, I saw you;
You were fixing up your barbed wire, when we opened up rapid fire;
If you ever want to see your dear Germany, keep your head down, you Alleman'."
The first brigade of the first division got badly mauled there. One battalion has been reported as singing the Canadian National Anthem while waiting to go "over the top." What they did sing was a song which has the singer bewailing that there is "No booze to-day."
After the fighting of April-May-June, 1915, the Canucks were moved to a fairly quiet section of the line. Old Ploegstreet Woods have oft re-echoed to the songs they sang there. One of them is still untruthfully sung. It has a mournful refrain, and these are the words of the ditty;—