Nissen News - 15.12.1941, Page 21

NISSEN NEWS
19
The Red Cross Bloke
Not a blinkjn’ rap do we care for the chap
With the Red Cross sign on his sleeve,
Till we get to the front, on the “stand to” stunt,
An’ a farewell bomb when you leave.
Midst that flyin’ death you hold your breath,
An’ life seems suddenly dear,
Whilst the Red Cross chap is out of the scrap,
In the safest part of the rear.
It don’t seem fair for him to be there,
While we face the poison an’ smoke,
Rut many a lad feels thunderin’ glad,
When night lends a shelterin’ cloak,
To be overhauled by the chap he’s called
The bloomin’ Red Cross bloke.
My own turn came — it’s part of the game —
In a scrap, by jove, ’twas hot!
When tlie blinkin’ Huns tried to pinch the guns
Of the 15lh — never mind what.
They’d tried and tried, an’ you bet they’d died,
While we lost many a chum.
Till word came through, “Now, lads, stand to”
An’ the next was, “Here they come!”
We charged an’ yelled and Ihe line was held,
Rut I can’t remember the rest
For the earth spun round, an’ I hit the ground
With daylight inside my chest.
When next I awoke a Iled Cross bloke
Was crossing that zone of death,
An’ I watched him come through tlie Shrapnel hum —
Just watched — and held my breath.
Till he reached my side, with a crawl an’ glide
An’ I blessed his crimson crest,
For he made me snug with a comfy plug
On the painful hole in tny chest,
Then away he crept, an’ I must have slept,
For when I awoke with the pain,
I was back at the base, as' a hospital case
An’ was booked through to Rlighty again.
So that’s how I’m here, feelin’ shaky an’ queer,
In this clinkin’ Red Cross bed,
With a Red Cross nurse, when I’m feelin’ worse,
To lay cool things on my head.
An’ all of it seemed to be part of my dreams,
Yet I knew that it’s not been a hoax,
For there’s thousands today who are ready to say,
“Thank Göd for the Red Cross blokes”.