Vive La France

Cheerful careless fellows
 Possessing the highest and bravest traditions
 Came streaming in
 Transforming into smart sergeants, corporals and beribboned veterans
 Off we marched to the sound of shrill brass
 Walk tall, look handsome
 Where we're going you die
 Defaced hacked up, torn apart
 The first furious fighting 'ccurred in southern Lorraine
 The French second army entering the Arden
 Groping forward through the forest
 They blundered into German machine guns and field howitzers
 Bayonet charges only led to more slaughter
 Calling up artillery was often doomed to failure
 Second by second the hail of bullets grew stronger
 No courage in the world could stand this fire
 The guns recoil with each shot
 Sticking out their tongues and spitting fire
 Heart rending cries, agonising appeals
 Intermingled with the sinister howling of projectiles
 Vive la France
 Vive liberty
 France has been the object of a violent attack
 She will be heroically defended by her sons
 Once again she stands before the universe
 For liberty justice and reason
 Church bells were ringing in the mining towns of Mons
 The black stinking canal reeked of chemical refuse
 Grey pointed slag heaps stuck everywhere
 Made war seem less incongruous here
 We were in the trenches just waiting for them
 Not expecting anything like the smashing blow that struck us
 All at once the sky began to rain down shells
 And a good many comrades went out
 A great roar of musketry rang the air
 The clatter of machine guns added to the din
 But still they came on
 Like a swinging scythe
 The German right wing was on the march to Paris
 Then came the days of retreat
 Plainly in the jaws of destruction
 An irresistible compulsion was pressing
 And forcing back the brave armies of France
 We marched and marched
 Day after day
 Like ghosts in the darkness
 Cavernous eyes in exhausted faces
 Ragged and torn and caked with mud
 No human brain had conceived the design
 Nor human hands set the pieces on the board
 The man Galieni fixed in his fortress
 So the mighty battle has been made to come to him
 Attack!
 Whatever happens
 We march or die
 The fighting begins
 Victory will come to the side that outlasts the other
 No human genius planned that the British should advance into this gap
 They bored and punched into the strategic vitals of the German right
 Shells explode incessantly
 High destiny, blind fate
 Regulated the movements of the British army
 Attack!
 Whatever happens
 We march or die
 The battle begins
 For the nations salvation
 No act of weakness will be tolerated
 Vive la France
 Vive liberty
 France has been the object of a violent attack
 She will be heroically defended by her sons
 Once again she stands before the universe
 For liberty justice and reason
 France has been the object of a violent attack
 She will be heroically defended by her sons
 Once again she stands before the universe
 For liberty justice and reason