And now a brief musical interlude…….

I seem to recall about 9 months or so ago I was contacted by Margaret, Secretary of the UK Association with a request as to whether we could find the lyrics to a song the boys in 75(NZ) Squadron sang to the tune of ‘Lili Marlene‘. At the time there seemed to be no suggestions as to what these lyrics might have been. I am pleased to now say that thanks to Keith and his eagle eyes regarding the latest newsletter from the New Zealand Bomber Command Association, we now have an answer. Perhaps, mercifully for anybody in earshot, I am not familiar enough with said tune to even give this a go, but perhaps somewhere, someone might be able to put these words to music……….

“The Lancs of Mepal”
(sung to the tune of Lili Marlene)

The Lancs of Mepal, they’re on their way,
Off to bomb the Jerries, they bomb them every day,
And when they wish to show their might,
They bomb the sods by day and night,
The Lancasters of Mepal, the Lancs of 75.

Off we go from briefing and leap into our kite,
Open up the throttles and roar into the night,
We’ve left the flare path far behind,
It’s bloody dark but we don’t mind,
The Lancasters of Mepal, the Lancs of 75.

There’s the bloody searchlights waving round the sky,
Not much ruddy power and not too bloody high,
I hope they don’t start shooting till we’re through,
They may get me and they may get you,
The Lancasters of Mepal, the Lancs of 75.

Now we’re through the target setting course for home,
Soon we’ll see the Sandra’s waving o’er the ‘drome,
That’s if we don’t go off the track,
And stop a crafty burst of flak,
The Lancasters of Mepal, the Lancs of 75.

Junkers off to starboard, Focke-Wulf off to port,
Gunners calls to skipper, range is getting short,
Prepare to corkscrew starboard, go,
We know our stuff and we’re not slow,
The Lancasters of Mepal, the Lancs of 75.

Now we’re in the circuit with a turn to land,
No intruders round us, ain’t it bloody grand,
We fooled the Hun once more tonight,
Dropped a load right on the Reich,
The Lancasters of Mepal, the Lancs of 75.

When the war is over and there’s no more ops to do,
We’ll think of all our pals,
The one’s who did not get through,
The pals who were with us through thick and thin,
That we one day the War would win,
The Lancasters of Mepal, the Lancs of 75

To continue the agony, here is a YouTube movie of images of Marlene Dietrich to the song ‘lili Marlene’ – I’ll admit it, I gave it a go and it didn’t seem to quite work………

I thank you…………….