A 1918 World War I song.
Words by Myles McCarthy
Music by Chauncey Haines
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
1. While the mighty hosts above are cheering
And hist’ry’s in the making now on earth
America has built a bridge of ships across the sea
To protect the land that gave you birth
You can hear the tread of the Yankees marching
Mingled with the Tommies from old England’s shore
You can hear Italians shouting, as they face the shot and shell
They are led by the heroes from days of yore
Chorus
Joan of Arc, the pray’rs of France have reached you
Under Lafayette the boys march on
Wellington is guiding ev’ry Britton
Garibaldi stands beside George Washington
Each has his cloak of courage ready for the boy who’ll fight as well as pray
They can’t choose one lad to wear it, for there’s thousands more to share it
Ev’ry boy’s a hero in this war today
2. Now there’s millions more that we are sending
Each one is leaving here to do or die
The spirits of those heroes old they know are looking on
Proudly watching from some foreign sky
And they know when victory has crowned them
That ev’ry sweetheart or a mother will be glad
Just to place both arms around them in the old familiar way
They will say, “This is my boy, my soldier lad”
Sung here by Fred Feild: