From: Jeanne S (My2cts@aol.com)
Date: Sat Apr 10 1999 - 01:46:49 PDT
Does anyone remember this one; "Dear Lady Astor, you think you know a lot standing on that platform and talkin' tommy rot you're England's sweetheart and her pride we think your mouth's too bloody wide that's from your D-Day Dodgers in sunny Italy." This satire is about one of the great gaffes of World War II. England's Lady Astor, while making a speech in Parliament after the Invasion of Normandy, referred to the British 8th Army (and indirectly to their American and Canadian allies) as "D-Day dodgers", insinuating that they had skipped the high profile invasion for light duty in Italy. The fact is that troops in the Italian campaign saw some of the bloodiest fighting of the war and they took exception to her ill-considered comment with the words of this song which they set to the tune of the then popular "Lily Marlene". The sharp tongued Astor met her match in several encounters with Winston Churchill. On one occasion she proclaimed, "Why, Sir Churchill, you are drunk!" Churchill replied, "And you are ugly, but I shall be sober in the morning". Jeanne (the post war baby boomer who's fascinated by this history ;o)