The D-Day Dodgers
Created | Updated Feb 1, 2005
We are the D - Day Dodgers, out in Italy,
Always on the vino and always on the spree,
Eighth Army skivers and their Tanks,
We live in Rome among the Yanks,
We are the D-Day Dodgers, in sunny Italy1.
This song, sung to the tune of 'Lili Marlene' was sung with a certain amount of bitterness after a remark by Lady Astor about soldiers who referred to soldiers fighting in Italy, and who therefore missed the D-Day landings as 'dodgers'. The soldiers in France, she said in the House of Commons on 6 June 1944 were doing the real fighting.
We landed at Salerno, a holiday with pay! ...
Soliders who were in the 8th Royal Fusiliers 5th Army and in the 8th Army (the Desert Rats) were involved in the landing in Salerno, Italy on September 9 1943. A 24 year old soldier from South East London, wounded in action saw casualties, many of them colleagues, lying on beaches for hours waiting for a ship to take them back to North Africa. Thousands of lads were killed in action. Soldiers in the units in Italy saw some of the most intense action, including the battles for Monte Cassino.
Dear Lady Astor, you think you know a lot ...
To be called a 'D-Day dodger' was a slur on the bravery of these men in the fighting line. The 8th Army soldiers had fought their way from Africa to Sicily and then into Italy without relief. No apology was ever given for this remark and there are people today who recall the remark with real resentment at the lack of acknowledgement for their contribution in the war effort.
See the scattered crosses, there's some that have no name!
So who were the D-Day Dodgers?
Related BBC Links
Read stories from people who lived through the Wars with WW2 - The People's War.
