AND THE BAND PLAYED WALTZING MATILDA

Subject: Re: Query--"And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda"

>From: hlf@holmes.acc.Virginia.EDU (H L. Falls)
>
>--Landi (who is going to learn the lyrics to AtBPWM as soon as he can
> learn to keep the tears out of his eyes when he hears it...)

Here ya go:

And The Band Played Waltzing Mathilda

When I was a young man I carried my pack
And I lived the free life of a rover
From the Murrays green basin to the dusty outback
I waltzed my Mathilda all over
Then in nineteen fifteen my country said Son
It's time to stop rambling cos there's work to be done
So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun
And they sent me away to the war
And the band played Waltzing Mathilda
As we sailed away from the quay
And amidst all the tears and the shouts and the cheers
We sailed off to Gallipoli

How well I remember that terrible day
How the blood stained the sand and the water
And how in that town that they called Sulva Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter.
Johnny Turk he was ready, he primed himself well
He chased us with bullets, he rained us with shells
And in five minutes flat he'd blown us all to hell
Nearly blew us right back to Australia.
But the band played Waltzing Mathilda
As we stopped to bury our slain
We buried ours and the Turks buried theirs
Then we started all over again.

Now, those that were left, well we tried to survive
In a mad world of blood, death and fire
And for ten weary weeks I kept myself alive
But around me the corpses piled higher
Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over tit
And I woke up in my hospital bed
I saw what it had to be done and I wished I was dead
Never knew there were worse things than dying
For I'll go no more waltzing Mathilda
All around the green bush far and near
For to hump tent and pegs, a man needs both legs
No more waltzing Mathilda for me.

So they collected the cripples, the wounded, the maimed
And they shipped us back home, to Australia
The armless, the legless, the blind, the insane
Those proud wounded heroes of Sulva
And as our ship pulled into Circular Quay
I looked at the place my legs used to be
And thank Christ there was no one there waiting for me
To grieve and to mourn and to pity
And the band played Waltzing Mathilda
As they carried us down the gangway
But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared
Then turned all their faces away.

And now every April I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me
And I watch my old comrades, how proudly they march
Renewing old dreams of past glory
And the old men march slowly, all bent, stiff and sore
The forgotten heroes of a forgotten war
And the young people ask, 'what are they marching for?'
And I ask myself the same question
And the band played Waltzing Mathilda
And the old men answer to the call
But year after year their numbers get fewer
Some day no one will march there at all.

Waltzing Mathilda, Waltzing Mathilda
Who'll come a-waltzing Mathilda with me
And their ghosts may be heard as you pass the Billabong
Who'll come a-waltzing Mathilda with me?

(Eric Bogle)

**************************

from The Encyclopedia of Military History:

"A hastily gathered British expeditionary force (including one French division) under General Ian hamilton was en route from England and Egypt to the Gallipoli Peninsula. Hamilton himself was at this moment an observer on board a British warship. The total strength of his force was 78,000 men.

[ It was discovered that the contingent from England had been loaded haphazardly, with guns and ammunition on separate ships. The transports were moved to Alexandria where they were combat-loaded, by unit, with men, their guns, ammunition, and equipment all on the same ship. This caused a month's delay. The alerted Turks 'improved their dispositions.' The German General Liman von Sanders, in command, had 60,000 men on the peninsula. ] "

"At Ari Burnu [ part of Sulva Bay - sa ] the Anzacs (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps), landing in force, moved up the slopes toward Chunuk Bair, a height dominating the entire peninsula and the Narrows beyond. But a young Turkish reserve division commander with an eye for terrain moved first. Personally leading a battalion, Mustafa Kemal rushed for the height, the remainder of his division quickly following. Even though his troops were outnumbered, Kemal's vicious counterattack from the ridge drove the Anzacs back to the beach with a loss of 5,000 men. Here, ordered by Hamilton to hold on, the Anzacs dug in to retain a narrow beachhead.

"At Helles, the 29th British Division landed on five beaches in a welter of mismanagement, incurring murderous losses. But a part of the division, overwhelming the Turkish beach defense, made its wa ygallantly almost to its objective, Achi Baba, a dominant hill mass. The division commander, safe on his command ship offshore, was not on the spot to handle the situation. Lacking further orders, the British troops stopped to brew tea below the still-unoccupied height. When they renewed their advance, it was too late. The Turks had occupied the hill in force.

"Chunuk Bair and Achi Baba would never be taken by the British. Without either of these two critical heights the landings were doomed to failure. As the Turks ringed the tiny beachheads with entrenchments, the British found themselves involved in the same kind of trench warfare they had known on the Western Front - but with even less room for maneuver.

"Comment: With the possible exception of the Crimean War, the Gallipoli expedition was the most poorly mounted and ineptly controlled operation in modern British military history."

sa