Bless ‘Em All!

On the accursed pages of Wxkipedia (patooie!) you will find the lyrics to a song that became famous during World War II entitled “Bless ‘Em All.” It was, I believe, originally a soldiers’ song and the lyric was, of course, “Fuck ‘Em All” but the cleaned up version is more famous even if it makes less sense.

My father used to sing this all the time. I kid you not. But the lyrics he sang differed from those listed by the execrable on-line encyclopedia, and he did go to the trouble to clean it up for my childish ears. It went like this:

Bless ’em all!
Bless ’em all!
The long and the short and the tall!
Bless all the sergeants and WO1’s,
Bless all the corporals and their buckin’ sons,
Oh we hated to leave ’em behind,
But here in Oran we did find,
If you’re a civilian you’re one in a million so cheer up, me lads, bless ’em all!

A rookie joins up he will say…
“Two bob a day is me pay!”
Bell-bottom trousers with seams down the side,
Four big pockets and NOTHING TO HIDE
Well we hated to leave ‘im behind…
But here in Oran we did find…
He’ll get no promotion this side of the ocean
So cheer up, me lads, BLESS ‘EM ALL!

They say there’s a troopship just leaving this day,
Heading for some golden shore.
Heavily laden with time-expired men,
bound for the land they adore.
There’s many a man who has finished his time,
Many a man going o’er,
But they’ll get no promotion that side of the ocean
SO CHEER UP, ME LADS, BLESS ‘EM ALL!

Bless ’em all!
Bless ’em all!
The long and the short and the tall!
Bless all the sergeants and WO1’s,
Bless all the corporals and their buckin’ sons,
Oh we hated to leave ’em behind,
But here in Oran we did find…
If you’re a civilian you’re one in a million so cheer up, me lads, bless ’em all!

This was actually sung, with appropriate profanity inserted, by actual G.I.’s in the 19th Engineers during Operation Torch and the subsequent battle for Tunisia. I couldn’t find this particular version anywhere using Google, so here it is.