Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1941-03-01
Xank War BItaS Stood Guara in Fiun6Y
W)hen German Prisoners Vent on Strike

Howard A. johnson, chief fns-
tice Of the state supreme court
was a combat pilot In the World
war. Chief Justice johnson wrote
the following story Ia 1920, while
he was completing his law courses
at the University Of Montana.
If one asks why the Germans had
no chance TO win, my answer Is that
they had to fight singing armies. The
British with "Tipperary." the French
with 'sAdadelon"-au the allies with
| their extemporized Songs-men whose
morale couldn't be broken, but who
put their complaints in the form Of
songs-they couldn't be defeated. Most
Of all does this apply to the American
army. No war ever brought out the
humor and the songs that this war
did. although no other war caused 80
much real suffering.
Some day book win be written
about the Raggedy-Backed Cadets"
who learned to fly In France and Eng
land and Italy; and that book win
feature the songs they sang. Among
those cadets were many Montanans;
J. G. SimpkinS Of hdissoula and the
State university, later killed at the
front; George Millburu and z. @. Rob
inson from the State college at Boze-
man: Schofield, from somewhere NO
of Great Falls, who was killed IN a
crash at Issoudun; big large" Camp
bell of Great Falls; Robert Fredericks
of MiSSoula, now an eastern newspaper
man; the writer, from the State uni
versity, and a number Of others.
That first winter the winter Of 1917,
we spent at Tours, IsSoudun and st.
Maixent, standing guard, doing detail
duty, working at various jobs when
the German prisoners were on strike
in fact. doing everything except
what we thought we enlisted and came |
to France to do.
In spite Of the cold and rain and /
lack Of comfort the chief complaint /
was the lack Of planes; but the morale,
while often on the ragged edge, never /
was quite lost. Whenever a detach-
ment Of cadets was called out to en-
train for flying school, the rest would
stage a big parade and march to the +
station TO the tune of THE Raggedy-
Backed Cadets Are on Their Way" and
on each empty bunk a service flag
would appear.
A lot of songs came out OF that
Go Wild, Simply Wild,
Over Here" I'm Too Young to Die"
THE Battle Hymn Of the s. o. s."
Those Ancient knights in Days Of
Yore Belonged to the Signal Corps"
Mother, Take Down Your Service
many others. The second went some
thing like this:
I want to go home, want to go
home.
The sopwiths they rumble. the Jay
Cats they roar
[ don't want to ride In a Farman no
more.
Boche pilots can't get at me.
Oh, my I'm too young to die;
There was an infinite number of !:
verses all Of them good. The ~Jay
Cats" referred to Is the American rem
lering of the French pronunciation Of
ga, the type number Of their BIZ
notored Caudron.
The Battle Hymn
The Battle Hymn Of the s. o. s."
goes to the tune of They Wouldn't !
Believe Me-" and ends about like this:
And when they ask us,
And they're surely going to ask us,
Why It's we did not win the Crotx ,
de Guerre,
We never will tell them,
We never will tell them.
There was a guerre,
But blamed If we knew where.
At length everyone got to a flying
chool, the American schools at Issou- :
Iun or Tours, the French school at :
1hartres or Chateauroux, or the Ital- ,
an school at Foggia. It was a marvel
us day in the spring Of 1918 when
ur detachment finally reached the
'rench school at Chateauroux and in /
pected the Flying Bedstead" or :
'audron. on which we were to learn !
D fly. l
Here after two or three days on I
-. wV