I want to go home,
I want to go home,
I don’t want to go to the trenches no more
Where whizzbangs and shrapnel they whistle and roar.
Take me over the sea
Where the Alleyman can’t get at me.
Oh, my! I don’t want to die,
I want to go home.
Giraud, S. L. ed., Songs that Won the War – “Daily Express” Community Song Book No.3 (Lane Publications, London, 1930)
This song was written by Lieutenant Gitz Rice, a Canadian soldier who was an officer with the 5th Battery, 2nd Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery during WW1.
Words and Music by Lieut. Gitz Rice
Published by Herman Darewski Music Publishing Co. 1918
1. When first I joined the Army, no so very long ago,
I said, I’d fight the foe,
And help Sir Douglas Haig you know.
I’ve been in France just sixteen months,
And fighting now as yet,
I haven’t seen a German, all I’ve seen is mud and wet.
Tomorrow, when the off’cer asks, “What would you like to do?”
I’m going to stand right up and say,
“If it’s all the same to you,
“I want to go home,
I want to go home;
The “whizz bangs” and shrapnel around me do roar,
I don’t want this old war anymore;
Take me far o’er the sea,
Where the Alleman* cannot get me,
Oh, my! I don’t want to die,
I want to go home.”
2. From measles I have suffered, and had twelve attacks of “flue,”
And “meningitus,” too,
But then no one ever knew.
The rain and mud has given me the “Meditus” of the spine,
I get it ev’rytime they ask me to go up the line.
I’ve got rheumatism of my hair,
A dislocated face,
I think it’s really, really time,
That someone should take my place.
[CHORUS]
* French word for a German