Heinkel, Come Back to Me

DESCRIPTION: "The sky was blue and way up high A Heinkel flew up in the sky." They look for it in the Ops Roome. Fighters scramble. The plane falls in the sea "and left Hitley vainly yelling, 'Heinkel come back to me.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Ward-Jackson/Lucas-AirmansSongBook); supposedly sung in 1941
KEYWORDS: technology crash derivative | plane
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ward-Jackson/Lucas-AirmansSongBook, p. 154, "Heinkel Come Back to Me" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Was Chasing One-Elevens" (another song about the Heinkel HE 111)
NOTES [239 words]: The source of this parody, "Lover, Come Back to Me" is from the Broadway show "New Moon" (1928), with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and music by Sigmund Romberg.
The Heinkel described in the song is probably the Heinkel He 111, a two-engined bomber that was one of the primary planes used in the Battle of Britain. Kenneth Munson, Aircraft of World War II, second edition, Doubleday, 1972, p. 95, says of it, "The bomber's successful evasion of the second-rate Spanish opposition [in the Spanish Civil War] led the Luftwaffe to bank on sending it against Britain with little or no protective escort; but in the Battle of Britain the He 111 took a considerable hammering. Panic build-up of armour and guns did little to alleviate matters, and the He 111 was diverted to such less hazardous duties as night bombing, minelyaing and torpedo-carrying -- proving quite successful at the last-named."
According to Bill Gunston, The Illustrated Directory of Fighting Aircraft of World War II, Salamander Books, 1988, 2002, p. 401, the irony of all that up-armoring and up-gunning (which forced the plane to take on a fifth and even a sixth crew member) was to cost it so much speed and maneuverability that its upgraded models were perhaps even more vulnerable than the speedy early models. The 111 was on paper a good plane, but it somehow didn't work well in practice.
For more details about the 111, see "I Was Chasing One-Elevens." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: WJL154

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography