67. Anzac Day, 2011: It's not a soldier's job to question why

On Anzac Day 2011 I sang, for the sixth year, at the Warrandyte RSL Anzac Day commemoration. In previous years I have sung songs by Eric Bogle - And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda (twice) and Flanders Field - The Redgum song I was only 19, and A Pittance of Time by a Canadian singer named Kelly.

This year I wrote a song for the occasion. I dedicated the song to my grandfather, Nigal Arthur Bertram, who served at Gallipoli, and who was wounded five times in all during the First World War.

It’s not a soldier’s job to question why
(c) Barry Carozzi, 2011

I was there in 1915
I responded to the call
Went to fight for King and Country
In that war to end all wars
On the beach there at Gallipoli
It was my 19th year
I felt the surge within my blood
I felt the mortal fear

And I watched my comrades fall
I watched my comrades die
And they said, ‘It’s not your job to question why’
It’s not a soldier’s job to question why.

In the Battle of the Somme
In the trenches and the mud
With the head lice and the rats
With the bayonets and the blood
Midst the screaming of the gas shells
And the screaming of the men
There were sights I would never want to see again.

And I watched my comrades fall
I watched my comrades die
And they said, ‘It’s not your job to question why.’
It’s not a soldier’s job to question why.


Thirty years passed by
And they called me up again
I was stationed up in Darwin
Why the bombs began to rain
In the monsoon and mud
On that damned Kokada Trail
Outnumbered by the enemy
We knew the cost if we should fail


And I watched my comrades fall
But we knew the reason why
As we fought to hold our ground
I watched my comrades die


In the deserts of Tobruk
Where we lived like rats in holes
In the rice fields of Vietnam
Sick in spirit, sick in soul
In the hell that was Iraq
In that hell Afghanistan
Young people give their lives for someone else’s plan


And we’ve watched our soldiers fight
And we’ve watched our soldiers die
And sickened to the heart we’ve wondered why
There’s not a day when I don’t wonder why

BRIDGE

The sounds of weeping boys
And the cries of dying men
They haunt every generation
And it’s happening again
Will there ever be a time
When the sounds of battle cease?
Will there ever be a time
Can there ever be a time when live in peace?



And we’ve watched our comrades fall
And we’ve watched my comrades die
And they said, ‘It’s not your job to question why.’
It’s not a soldier’s job to question why.