We're Going to Hang out the Washing on the Siegfried Line

"We're Going to Hang out the Washing on the Siegfried Line" is a popular song written by Ulster songwriter Jimmy Kennedy, whilst he was a Captain in the British Expeditionary Force during the early stages of the Second World War. The Siegfried Line was a chain of fortifications along Germany's Western border, analogous to the Maginot Line in France. The song was used as a morale-booster during the war, particularly up to and during the Battle of France.^{[citation needed]}

It began

We're going to hang out the washing on the Siegfried Line.
Have you any dirty washing, mother dear?
We're gonna hang out the washing on the Siegfried Line.
'Cause the washing day is here.

Leslie Sarony (1897-1985) and Leslie Holmes added some possibly unofficial lines. The Sarony and Holmes version put "Mother dear, I'm writing you from somewhere in France" at the start and then, after the main section, added four lines starting "Everyone is mucking in and doing their job".

US Army Signal Corps Photo

Parody

A mocking parody was written shortly after:

German:

Ja mein Junge, das hast du dir gar zu leicht gedacht
mit dem großen Wäschetag am deutschen Rhein
hast du dir auch deine Hosen richtig vollgemacht,
brauchst du garnicht traurig sein!
Bald seifen wir dich gründlich ein
von oben und von unten her
wenn der deutsche Waschtag wird gewesen sein,
Mensch, dann brauchst du keine Wäsche mehr!

Sing dies Liedchen mit, wer es nur immer singen mag
mit der zweiten Kriegsberichterkompanie
Bis zum Wäschetag, ja bis zum Wäschetag
In aller Herrgottsfrüh.
Mein Mädel, schenk' noch einmal ein
Und tanzt und trinkt die Gläser leer.
Denn wenn der große Waschtag wird gewesen sein
Kehr' ich heim, kehr' ich heim übers Meer.

English:

Yeah, my boy, you thought it would be so easy
At the great Washing Day on the German Rhine.
Oh, and you really filled your trousers, didn't you?
But you don't need to be so sad!
Soon we'll scrub you up very thoroughly
From above, and way down below!
And when the German Washing Day is over,
Man, you won't need any more washing.

Join this little song, that we always sing,
In the Second War Reporter Company,
From one Washing Day to the next Washing Day,
Every day at the crack of dawn.
My girl, give us another round
And we'll dance and drink the glasses dry.
Because when the Great Washing Day is done and gone
I'll come home, I'll come home from across the sea.

External links

• Jimmy Kennedy's obituary at the New York Times, April 1984
• German mocking parody on British Siegfried Line song in MP3
• Wir trocknen uns're Wäsche an der Siegfried-Linie This website has the German words, a slightly different version of the English words and an adapted tune that might scan to the German words.