Does anyone know the source of these two military quotations?
“The generals are always prepared for the last war”.
This appeared in a book by Barbara Tucman, but I suspect it is much older.
The marching drill:
I left my wife and forty-eight children
A red-headed baby in starving condition.
Left
Left
Left right left
Etc.
I’ve been looking for the sources of two quotations for years–having gone as far as writing the research units at West Point and Annapolis, but they were unable to locate the sources. Nonetheless, it’s worth a shot here.
*Some talk of Alexander and some of Hercules,
of Hector and Lysander and such great names as these.
But of all the world´s brave heroes there is none that can compare,
with a tow, row, row, row, row, row to the British Grenadiers.
2.) Those heroes of antiquity ne’er saw a cannon ball,
Or knew the force of powder to slay their foes withal.
But our brave boys do know it, and banish all their fears,
Sing tow, row, row, row, row, row, for the British Grenadiers.*
or from Wales:
*Tongues of fire on Idris flaring,
news of foe-men near declaring,
to heroic deeds of daring,
call You Harlech men!
2.) Groans of wounded peasants dying,
wails of wives and children flying,
for the distant succour crying,
call You Harlech men.*
I’ve never been in the military but I have seen Full Metal Jacket, so the only military cadence I think of is the one speculating on the temperature of Inuit genitalia, but I assume that that there are lots of them. (Of course, mainly when I think of the word “cadence” I think of Cadence with chain gang Charlie Sheen.)
I went through Marine Corps boot camp (San Diego) in 1969. The Full Metal Jacket depiction of MCBC is pretty accurate save for two things. The first is marching cadences. They were never used. The second has to do with the recruit killing his DI and then himself. It would have been next to impossible for a recruit to leave a range with live ammunition.
The marching drill isn’t a marching drill - it’s from a story called “Nothing but Gingerbread Left” by Henry Kuttner in 1943; the gimmick of the story is that the heroes invent an earworm designed to infect the minds of German-speakers, making them less capable of fighting. The correct text is
“LEFT!
LEFT!
LEFT a wife and SEVenteen children in
STARVing condition with NOTHing but gingerbread LEFT
LEFT!
LEFT a wife and SEVenteen children—”
Well, to be pedantic, British Grenadiers and Men of Harlech are more “art” songs, rather than the kind of thing you’d expect soldiers to be singing as they march along (they don’t usually do American-style chanting). The songs usually attributed to British soldiers might also not have been sung while marching along in the earshot of sergeants and officers, as they tend to be somewhat less full of fighting spirit, as for example in WW1
(to the tune of the hymn The Church’s One Foundation): We are Fred Karno’s Army, What bloody use are we?
We cannot fight, we cannot shoot, So we joined the infantry.
or
I don’t want to join the army
I don’t want to go to war
I’d rather hang around Piccadilly Underground
Living of the earnings of a high class lady
(and then it gets ruder)
or from WW2 the famous words to *Colonel Bogey *about the physical deficiencies of assorted Nazi leaders.
And though it may not be military in origin, but also to a hymn tune I can’t offhand put a name to, there’s a fair few NCOs and senior officers might have had this sung about them:
Why was he born so beautiful
Why was he born at all
He’s no ***** use to anyone
He’s no **** use at all
