The Forgotten First

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The Forgotten First.

We joined this country’s army when the going was the roughest. 

We’re with a mad division that is called the fighting first. 

We swallowed sand in Borden when the training was the roughest. 

We crossed the grim Atlantic when the subs were at their worst. 

We prowled about in London when the nights were black and dreary.

We roamed around the country on manonuvres by the score. 

We never knew that men could get so all un Godly weary,

So utterly disgusted with that endless waiting war. 

Then just when things were such as make the bravest of us falter.

They packed us into vessels and we headed out to sea

They kept us in the atokeholes till we got around Gibraltar.

Then we stormed the sandy beaches on the shores of Sicily,

We slugged it out with Jerry on the bloody Moro river.

We beat him at Cassino and we drove him out of Rome.

And many of our buddies will be lying there forever. 

We’ve met a lot of trouble that you’ll never hear at home.

Then we took Ortona, _________ and did the same at Rimini, _____ at An___ 

We travelled all the high war torn Messina to Bologna. 

We waded all the rivers from the Tiber to the Po. 

We were not in France oh lay - we were busy other places. 

We had a little job to do, and _____ we did it well. 

The Nazis still remember just how warm were our embraces. 

We caught them in our gun-sight and we blew them all to hell. 

Now when we come back home again we may not tell the story 

How Jim and Andy caught it when they stepped upon a mine. 

We may omit the details as too horrible or gory. 

Or all the sights we saw the day we broke the Gothic Line. 

We'll talk of pretty maidens and the beauty of the scenery. 

We'll stress the night of merriment and tell our little jokes. 

But those who fought their way across that God-forsaken country, 

Saw dirty, deadly fighting under Major-General Vokes. 

We don't pretend to argue who the bravest were, or strongest. 

But when you sit in beverage rooms to slake your burning thirst. 

Remember that the boys who got there first and stayed the longest, 

We're those lads down in Italy called Vokes Forgotten First. 

by Michael Foran of 59 Gilmour Ave, Toronto

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