From: Tim Merry (timmerry@SHOAL.NET.AU)
Date: Fri Apr 09 1999 - 00:43:38 PDT
On 7 Apr 1999 Tom Holloway forwarded Shelby's enquiry:
>>> My name is Shelby...I have a major history project due,it is a time line
>>of WW2...we have just finished studying WW2...i thought you might be able
>>to help me find any stories or 1st hand accounts of life during WW2,songs
>>written durning WW2
Hi Shelby: that's a pretty big 'ask': you had better narrow it down a
bit by focusing on particular events, aspects, places or people. But to
mention a few songs that come to mind - just a line or two -
"We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when,
But I know we'll meet again some sunny day..."
"When the lights come on again - all over the world..."
"There'll be bluebirds over, the white cliffs of Dover..."
"We'll hang out the washing on the Ziegfried Line:
Have you any dirty washing, mother dear?
We'll hang out the washing on the Ziegfried Line,
If the Ziegfried Line's still there...."
"Underneath the lamp-light, by the barrack gate..."
(title was LILI MARLENE, originally a German song -
'Unter der Laterne, etc' - which the British 8th Army
in North Africa seem to have adopted. I think that's
the story.)
There was another song our 'Desert Rats' used to sing,
which they picked up in or around Sorrento in Italy,
and which they sang in Italian! (more or less), and
I think it was called 'Come back to Sorrento', or
something like that.
I've probably got the words wrong here and there, but this may be
enough to give you a lead.
All the best,
Tim