Our leaders told us we had to go
And the generals also told us so
Save the world from the dreaded Hun
As boys we thought it would be fun
At stake was the empire and British pride
The king of course could not be denied

So off we went to war to fight
Believing in our nation’s right
How could we cowardly stand by
Out duty we could never deny
We thought it would be a great lark
As we marched to the boats to embark

The generals had a simple plan
Which they drummed into us every man
Off the boats and up the hill
Just obey your military drill
Shoot, snipe and bayonet hard
Force the enemy back yard by yard

I’ll tell you now, it was to no avail
From the start it was bound to fail
The rugged cliffs, so impossibly steep
Conspired to make us boys weep
The winter rain, the gangrenous blood
All filled the trenches and made them flood

The hail of bullets, heads blown apart
Machine gun fire right through the heart
Blinded and gassed, maimed and dead
The silent sound of the killing lead
Gathering courage to go over the top
The dread of seeing our mates then drop

The generals finally called a halt
But would not admit they were at fault
They sent us to war again and again
And we watched more of our mates slain
Then they sent us back to our former life
And didn’t care as we got into strife

Because you see, our minds were scarred
And from healing talks we were barred
No counselling back in our days then
We suddenly changed from boys to men
Just back to work and get on with life
So of course our mental damage was rife

So for Anzac day I say
Let us old men have our day
They told us we had to go and fight
We believed in our divine national right
We suffered badly, but still don’t know
Who really was our wartime foe