OUR LITTLE CHATEAU OUTSIDE YPRES

In our little chateau outside Ypres,
Where we’ve been in action for weeks,
The Germans are there and the boys all declare
That they’ll soon want some wings on their feet;
Outside the big German shells fall,
And some find their way in the hall,
But the boys do not care if a shell parts their hair,
In that little chateau outside Ypres.

In our little chateau outside Ypres,
The view that we’ve got can’t be beat,
We’ve three batteries there, the Huns say
“It’s not fair"
When their trenches are put in a heap.
Their aircraft are simply a fake,
And none of their guns can locate,
So we’re here in the shade, and were going to put “paid"
To the Germans that lie outside Ypres.

To that little chateau outside Ypres,
Run the wires from the batteries so neat.
When the order comes through we’ve got work to do,
In a moment our quick-firers speak.
From the trenches comes word that our shell
In the Huns’ trench has burst quite well,
And it strikes very hard, it’s the visiting card
From that little chateau outside Ypres.

Now the boys in the chateau near Ypres
Says the fags that we get are a treat,
And the rum issued, too, is welcome, but you
Need not think it will lead to defeat,
For Tommy’s a man of few words,
His thanks very seldom are heard,
But the papers you read show well that the breed
Are the bulldogs from England near Ypres.

By Driver L Williams, Royal Field Artillery

* This poem was first printed in the Grays and Tilbury Gazette in April 1915 and is featured in the book WW1 Poems and Letters by Men of Grays and Tilbury, which is priced at £6 and is available by emailing truslera@hotmail.com