MORE SONGS WE SANG
IN THE NEW ZEALAND FORCES OVER SEAS
By LES CLEVELAND and the D-DAY DODGERS
Side One
THE QUARTERMASTERS STORE
THE TRENTHAM BLUES
THE VETERANS REPLY and LITTLE MISS MUFFET
MARCH
THE LOUSY LANCE CORPORAL
ISA LEI
Side Two
THE BATTLE OF COCONUT GROVE
LILI MARLENE
CASTELFRENTANO
MAMA
DUGOUT IN MATRUH
MAORI BATTALION
The Artists
Vocal: Lcs Cleveland with Alec Veysey, Mike
Bennett, Basel Tubert and Jim McNaught.
Musical Direction: Ken Avery.
Instrumental: Bob Barcham, piano and
piano-accordion; Denny Mahn, trombone; John Mahn, trumpet; Morry Simpson, drums;
Doug Brewer, string bass; Ken Avery, clarinet.
The tradition* of the New Zealand Armed
Forces are rich in folklore. Most of the
. songs of the rank and file of World War II are even more interesting today
than
perhaps they seemed 15 years ago. They contain a valuable insight into the minds
of
a whole (feneration of servicemen,, They are unofficial history part of a great
sprawling body of belief, humour, protest and comic fantasy, which seldom finds
its way into cold, official archives.
The Kiwi soldier is not emotionally
demonstrative but these soldiers' songs range
from boisterous comedy to rough satire, with sometimes a brief glimpse of tragic
experience.
The following notes are a guide to the
origins of the material which has been
collected by Les Cleveland—himself a former 2NZEF infantryman, and well known
in New Zealand as a journalist, broadcaster and mountaineer.
THE QUARTERMASTER'S STORE
A traditional song of World War 1 which
was still current in World War II.
Version* vary according to different unit traditions.
TRENTHAM BLUES
Many men called up for active service
overseas groused at the monotony of typical
New Zealand training camps like Burnham, Trentham, Papakura and Waiouru.
While they were waiting to join reinforcement drafts for convoy to the Middle
East,
they found that much Army life consisted of elementary drill guards and
fatigues.
In Trentham this programme was varied with spells of work on the Wellington
wharves, and storing enormous loads of ammunition (much of which was never
afterwards used) in dumps around the Hutt Valley at places like Belmont. The
11th
Reinforcement 2NZEF sailed in two sections. The Trentham Blues was a song
composed by men in the second section who thought that because they were
nominally
designated as machine gunners they ought to be given more glamorous tasks than
guards and fatigues while they were awaiting their turn for transit to the
Middle
East and Italy in 1944.
THE VETERAN'S REPLY
Expresses the present-day sentiments of
many diggers who recall the difference
between what they actually saw and did at the war. and what history has
subsequently
made of it all. The recitation is a piece of unofficial doggerel current in
returned
services' circles at Whakatane.
LITTLE MISS MUFFET
Another traditional Army marching song
of uncertain origins.
THE LOUSY LANCE CORPORAL
Originated with the Australian Forces
in World War I and is part of the standing
body of ANZAC folklore which was passed on to many hundreds of thousands of
young soldiers when they were called up in the 1939-45 struggle. Versions vary
according to the whims of the singer, but the central image of all of them is
the
confrontation of the brass hats and hangers-on of the headquarters staff, by the
grim,infuriated digger who has come back to see for himself what has been going on.
In 2NZEF circles the term "bludger"
came to mean almost anybody who was notin the fighting part of the Division (or who had not served at some time in it).
A
small eminence in Maadi Camp in Egypt, where the headquarters of the N.Z.
Division
were situated, in 1940, was universally known as "Sludgers' Hill".
ISA LEI
Heard in Fiji by the original Eighth
Brigade Group, who were sent there early in
the war when it was thought a Japanese invasion was imminent; acquired by the
3rd New Zealand Division which absorbed the brigade group when it reformed in
New Zealand for battle in the Parifiv: played on ceremonial occasions by the
Divisional brass hand; and sung with solemn feeling by the 15,000 troops who
made
up the bulk of the reorganised Division when they sailed out of Auckland Harbour
in
1943 on the American liner Westpoint..
The song was originally composed by a
German named Busch, In Hawaii in the
1880s. From there it travelled to Tonga where it achieved some popularity under
the
Tnngan title "Si'i Lili Viola Lose Hina". About the year 1918 it was introduced
into
the Lau Islands of the Fiji Group by a
Tongan named Pasoni, and here it was an
enormous success. The Fijian lyric, heard on the record, was written by the High
Chief of Lau, Ratu Tevita, and the words express a song of lament at departing
from
Fiji. "Isa lei!" in Fijian is an exclamation of regret, equivalent to the
English "Alas!"
THE BATTLE OF COCONUT GROVE
As sung by men of C Company,
29th Battalion in Namaka Camp, Fiji, 1940. This
is a typical piece of wartime satire. Troops who served in Fiji and other island
garrisons were depressed by poor food, rough living and monotony. The number of
"enemy" scares and false alarms was also a source of ribald protest. This song
pours
ridicule on the activities of the army in Fiji and on the journalistic accounts
of
themselves which the astonished troops often came across in the New Zealand
press
afterwards. The references to a "pouch full of lead heads" applies to a classic
piece
of Army folklore about an occasion when ammunition boxes hastily sent to Fiji
when
the panic was on, were found on arrival to contain leadhead nails.
LILI MARLENE
A sentimental German composition which
was sung in a variety of languages by
German and Allied forces. The opening stanzas of this version were composed by
New Zealanrlers serving in the Italian campaign in 1944. At this time there were
problems of morale in the Division and many of the long service men who had seen
hard fighting in the desert battles were anxious to be allowed to return to New
Zealand on furlough. They felt their places should be taken by younger soldiers
from New Zealand. Their arguments were brought unofficially to the attention of
superior authority in typically New Zealand fashion in the form of song
addressed
to the wartime Prime Minister, Peter Fraser, who visited the troops in Italy in
May
1944, It is not recorded whether or not Mr Fraser was moved by these unorthodox
tactics, but after his departure the 4th Reinforcements were relieved and other
veterans followed them home as shipping became available.
C4STELFRENTANO
A battlefield lament sung by men of the
Maori Battalion and other frontline troops
after the bloody fighting in December 1943 around Orsogna. a hilltop fortress in
the
south of Italy, Castelfrentano is a nearby town of about €.000 people between
the
Sangro River and Orsogna, itself. The song brings up the memory of comrades who
fell in the Sangro battles and recalls the sound of the Castelfrentano bell.
This town
had been peacefully occupied by Sixth Brigade forces, so that the image of the
bell
contrasts with the violence and stress of the surrounding battlefields.
Nevertheless,
the bell poses an ominous question: "Where are you going?" As was to emerge, the
infantry faced even more costly and exhausting struggles ahead—Cassino was where
they were going. Still, the song concludes with the resolute sentiment that the
continuing struggle is preferable to the potential pleasures represented by rich
northern industrial cities like Milan. Why? Because at that stage of the
campaign.
Milan and the north were full of Fascists and German occupying forces. It was a
symbol of everything that the Allies were committed to destroying,
MAMA
A popular Italian ballad about how nice
it would be back home with Mama, that
was enjoyed by all who served in Italy.
DUGOUT IN MATRUH
Mersa Matruh is a coastal settlement in
the Egyptian desert between Baggush and
Sidi Barrani. It was used as a defensive position and a supply point repeatedly
during
the ups and downs of the desert campaigns. Extensive trench systems, minefields
and
gunpits. constructed by cursing, sweating troops, were never subsequently put to
much use by them. The area was a rendezvous for the N.Z. Division during the
confusing events that followed the Eighth Army retreat from Tobruk. To grim digs
of the early campaigns, places like Mersa Matruh and the Baggush Box became
symbols for heat, monotony, homesickness, thirst, flies, confusion and bombing
raids.
MAORI BATTALION
A patriotic marching song written at
the beginning of World War II by Ansnia
Te Amohau, then a corporal in the N.Z. Forces,
Also Available: THE SONGS WE SANG KIWI
LA-3
An earlier release obtainable from all
record dealers. 10 inch L.P. Contains
other famous N.Z. services songs including
Saida Bint. My Africa Star, Good
Ship "Venus". The Army in Fiji. Aiwa Saida, My A.25, etc.
Also available from A. H. & A.
W. Reed and from Editorial Services Ltd.,
Wellington, words and music of a collection of N.Z. Army and Services ballads
with Neville Colvin's wartime illustrations.
Retail Price 10s, 6d,
Note: This Kiwi record is the subject of copyright.
