  For days the cannon roaring With loud incessant peal, The terrane and the trenches Had torn with lead and steel; Which told the boys in khaki Of fighting near at hand, And eagerly all waited The long wished for command. Within the first line trenches, The highland laddies lay, Their thoughts were of their mothers Or sweethearts far away; Each one of them was thinking Of home and native sod, And like a Christian soldier Had made his peace with God. The morn broke dark and stormy With hail and snow and sleet, Which made for many soldiers Ere night, their winding sheet; The shrapnel bits were flying, Like swarms of summer midge, When Borden’s highland laddies Charged up the Vimy Ridge. On the top of this famed mountain, Nearby the city Lens, The enemy in dugouts Lay like lions in their dens; The mountain strong by nature, The Germans stronger made With cannon and with mortar, On concrete bases laid. And thousands of machine guns, In their allotted place, And thousands of their snipers, With rifle and with brace; And lines of barbed wire fencing Of every strength and size, And aught else which their science Or cunning could devise. Their seeming sense of safety, The Teutons did elate, And all were glibly chanting The Kaiser’s hymn of hate, When, lo! the pibroch’s skirling Their first line did astound And Donald, Rod and Angus Came on them with a bound. And ere they had recovered From their astonishment The foremost of their gleemen To sing elsewhere were sent; And midst the cry of Kam’rade In broken English spoke, Both Prussian and Bavarian Went down from bayonet stroke. And furious was the struggle, ’Twixt Highlander and Hun, For hand to hand the fighting On Vimy Ridge was done. The shock troops of the Kaiser, And all his proud array, Fled fast before the Bluenose On that eventful day. And when the war is over, And peace again is come, We’ll give our gallant laddies A highland welcome home; With flags and banners waving, With singing and with cheer, We’ll celebrate the glory Of Vimy day each year. decoration of text |
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