Skip to main content

February 6, 1918 - "Over There" American war song

Don Martin diary entry for Wednesday, February 6, 1918: 
Got up a little earlier today to get breakfast before the crowded lunch hour. Went to office and wrote a labor story I had told Baird to do. He is the prize bonehead surely enough. How he has managed to keep out of a home for undeveloped creatures is a mystery to me. Wrote a letter to Mr. Bennett in Beaulieu about expenses. 
Charlie Wheeler has gone to Darling to commute. Good idea to get out of air raid zone. Had dinner at Simpson’s. Saw Gen. Maurice [Director of Military Operations at the War Office] in p.m. Also saw war relics and photos in Royal Academy. They make our Civil War remnants look pretty insignificant. At office for hour or two this evening. Sat in Savoy restaurant with Kelly and Brownell and listened to the orchestra play “Over There,” which is now the popular war song.

Weather pleasant till evening – then rain.

      George M. Cohen wrote the patriotic song "Over There" in 1917   to galvanize American young men to enlist in the army and fight the "Hun". The song is best remembered for a line in its chorus, "The Yanks are coming." The lyrics are :

Johnnie, get your gun, get your gun, get your gun
Take it on the run, on the run, on the run
Hear them calling, you and me, every son of liberty
Hurry right away, no delay, go today
Make your daddy glad, to have had such a lad
Tell your sweetheart not to pine, to be proud her boy's in line
Over there, over there
Send the word, send the word over there
That the Yanks are coming
The Yanks are coming
The drums rum-tumming
Everywhere
So prepare, say a prayer
Send the word, send the word to beware
We'll be over, we're coming over
And we won't come back till it's over
Over there
Johnnie, get your gun, get your gun, get your gun
Johnnie show the Hun who's a son of a gun
Hoist the flag and let her fly, Yankee Doodle do or die
Pack your little kit, show your grit, do your bit
Yankee to the ranks,  from the towns and the tanks
Make your mother proud of you, and the old Red, White and Blue

Over there, over there
Send the word, send the word over there
That the Yanks are coming
The Yanks are coming
The drums rum-tumming
Everywhere
So prepare, say a prayer
Send the word, send the word to beware
We'll be over, we're coming over
And we won't come back till it's over
Over there

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

October 14, 1918: Don Martin’s funeral service in Paris

        A funeral service for Don Martin was held in Paris on Sunday, October 13, 1918, at the American Church, rue de Berri. The New York Herald published this report on Monday, October 14, 1918. MANY FRIENDS AT CHURCH SERVICE FOR DON MARTIN Simplicity and Sincerity of Character of “Herald” Writer, Theme of Dr. Goodrich’s Sermon                     Funeral services for Don Martin were held yesterday afternoon in the American Church in the rue de Berri. They were simple and impressive. Before the pulpit rested the coffin, over which was spread the American flag. Floral offerings were arranged around it. Flat against the wall behind the pulpit were two American flags and the tricolor, and on either side were standards of these two emblems. Uniforms of the United States army predominated in the gathering of 200 persons composed of friends Mr. Martin had known for years at home and friends he had made in France. The depth and beauty of character which drew these old and new

Welcome to Don Martin blog on Armistice Centennial Day

Welcome to the World War I Centennial Don Martin daily blog, on Armistice Centennial day, November 11, 2018. Don Martin was a noted war correspondent reporting on the American Expeditionary Forces in France in 1918. Regrettably he died of Spanish influenza in Paris on October 7,1918, while covering the Argonne Forest offensive. He missed the joy of the Armistice by a month. Beginning on December 7, 2017, this blog has chronicled each day what Don Martin wrote one hundred years earlier – in his diary, in his letters home, and in his multitude of dispatches published in the Herald newspaper, both the New York and the European (Paris) editions. The blog, for the several days following his death, recounts the many tributes published, his funeral in Paris and his trip back to his final resting place at his home in Silver Creek, New York. To access the daily blogs, click on the three red lines at top right, then in the fold-down menu, click on Archive. There are 316 blogs from D

October 17, 2018: Final Salute to Don Martin, Soldier of the Pen

          We have reached the end of the Don Martin World War I centennial memorial blog. Starting on December 7, 2017, this daily blog has chronicled, in 315 postings, the remarkable story of my grandfather’s contribution to the Great War.               This blog was possible because of the availability of my grandfather Don Martin’s diaries and his letters to my mother, and his published writings in the New York and Paris Herald.             We have followed him from leading political reporter of the New York Herald at the end of 1917, to head of its London office in January-March 1918, and then to France as accredited war correspondent covering the American Expeditionary Forces, based first in Neufchateau, then in Meaux, Nancy and finally for a few days in Bar le Duc. And then, his final return to his hometown in Silver Creek, New York. Don Martin has given us a full and insightful, if grim, picture of the Great War, as witnessed by the American war correspondents. We have seen