Kaiser Bill Is Feeling Ill

DESCRIPTION: "Kaiser Bill is feeling ill, The crown prince, he's gone barmy, We don't give a fuck for old Von Kluck And all his bleeding army"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Pegler-SoldiersSongsAndSlangoftheGreatWar)
KEYWORDS: soldier royalty army derivative | World War I
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Pegler-SoldiersSongsAndSlangoftheGreatWar, p. 330, "Kaiser Bill" (1 short text, tune referenced)
Roud #10581
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pop Goes the Weasel" (tune) and references there
NOTES [277 words]: "Kaiser Bill" is of course Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859-1941). The Crown Prince is Wilhelm II's son Wilhelm (1882-1951), who commanded the Fifth Army in 1914 and was part of the great German offensive against France in that year; he was later promoted to an army group command. Even though he obviously owed his command to his family history, the impression I get from histories of World War I is that he was competent if not particularly inspired.
Alexander Von Kluck (1846-1934) at the start of World War I was the commander of the German First Army -- the most important of the eight armies the Germans initially raised, because it was deployed at the far right of the long line of seven armies which smashed into France; since the armies were pivoting around a point on their far left, the First Army had the longest march, and was the flank element expected to outflank the French army. The great (first) Battle of the Marne, in which the French and British threw back the German offensive, was in effect an attack on von Kluck's First Army; if the Entente forces could defeat Von Kluck, they could outflank the rest of the German Army. As it turned out, the British and French could not destroy von Kluck, but they hit him hard enough to force him to retreat, ending the German offensive.
Despite his strategic defeat at the Marne, von Kluck remained in command of the First Army until March 1915, when a severe leg wound forced him into retirement (see Stephen Pope and Elizabeth-Anne Wheal, Dictionary of the First World War, 1995 (I use the 2003 Pen & Sword paperback), pp. 270-271).
For another song mentioning Von Kluck and the Kaiser, see "Neuve Chappelle."
Last updated in version 7.1
File: PSoS330

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