Our planes are roaring, roaring for the battle,
High in the air above the clouds we speed,
Our bombs are ready, our machine-guns rattle,
Against the world’s imperialist greed,
Chorus
Flying higher, higher and higher,Our emblem the Soviet Star,
And ever propeller is roaring,
Defending the USSR,
(shout) Red Front ! or (Shout) Y-C-L
But to the workers and the toiling masses,
A gleam of hope all our propellers whirl,We drop them leaflets while we bomb their bosses,
The first Red Air Force of the world,
Chorus
Our proud machines obey our every orderThere is no flight our pilots do not dare,
We form an iron ring above our border
The workers first squadrons of the air,
Chorus
And should dictators with snouts come rooting
Around the soil of our free Soviet land,
Our guns can sting the jaws that gape for looting,
Our bombs will smash the greedy hand
END
NOTES
other versions of Chorus
Flying higher, higher and higher,
Our emblem the Soviet Star,
And ever propeller is turning,
In defence of the USSR
or below the University Labour Federtation version
And ever propeller is roaring
Red Front ! Defending the USSR
Alternative...........................
Chorus
Flying higher, higher and higher,
Our emblem the Soviet Star
And ever propeller is turning,
In defence of the USSR,
(Shout) Y-C-L
or
And ever blade is turning
in defence of the USSR
This song was very popular amongst Communist Party and Young Communist League (YCL) members during and after the war, the Chorus often being sung on its own with great passion. (also with hand movements to replicate propellers turning).
The first version I can trace has words adapted by Randall Swingler of the Workers Music Association in 1939 costing 2d
Kevin Halpin states this chorus is correct
Flying higher, higher and higher,
Our emblem the Soviet Star,
And ever propeller is roaring,
Defending the USSR,
(shout) Red Front ! or (Shout) Y-C-L
Ken Keable states, my parents, Bill & Gladys Keable, taught me to sing the Song of the Soviet Air Force (in Esperanto as well as in English) I used to sing it in the 1970's and 1980's when I was in the political song group "The Partisans". Here are the words I was taught,
We sail the sky as steamers sail the ocean.
We boldly fly where none has flown before.
Our arms are wings of metal swift in motion,
Our beating heart - the mighty engine's roar.
Fly higher, and higher, and higher -
Our emblem, the Soviet star
And every propeller is roaring
Defending the USSR.
Our watchful gaze explores the wide horizon.
Our iron nerves the elements defy.
To every foe, to any fighting challenge
Our mighty air fleet swiftly will reply.
(
Chorus)
Our proud machines obey our every order.
There is no flight our pilots do not dare.
We form an iron ring above our border -
The workers' first great squadrons of the air.
(Chorus).
The Randall Swingler version starts with
Our engines roar the frozen air is cleaving
Red Square is darkened
Our guardian shade
And over lands and polar oceans
Weaving our cable lines of peace are laid
CHORUS
Higher and Higher and higher
Our emblem the Soviet star
And every propeller is roaring
Defending the USSR
"I am filled with admiration for
the gallant exploits of the
Red Navy in face of
numerically superior forces"
Stafford Cripps M.P British Ambassador to the Soviet Union 1940-1942
The Soviet Red Navy was established from the remnant of the old Russian Imperial Army,
Sailors had always been held in high standing in Russia, having played a progressive and decisive role in defending the people in struggles against the Tsar in 1905 and 1917.
With Victory for the Soviets in the civil war (which saw 60,000 sailors fight with the Red Army). The new Soviet government inherited just three old battleships, four cruisers, twenty destroyers and a dozen submarines.
The Soviet Navy won great glory in World War II in defending 40,600 miles of sea coast against the fascist invaders.
The Four fleets of the Soviet Navy during the war were: Baltic, Black Sea, Northern and Pacific Fleet, the navy also provided the men and boats of the Soviet Submarine fleets and river flotillas.
The Soviet Navy played decisive roles in the defence of Leningrad, Moscow, Odessa, Sevastopol, and the river flotilla at Stalingrad.
It was Soviet naval planes in conjunction with British Lancaster bombers which, on 12 November 1944, were responsible for the sinking of the Tirpitz the largest battleship ever built, when it emerged from a Norwegian Fjord of Tromsö.
It was also soviet navy planes who first secured a Soviet air raid on Berlin, when planes from the Baltic island of Ozel attacked the heart of fascism in August 1941.
The Soviet Navy's most heroic stand was probably, it's 250 day defence of Sevastopol in the Crimea (30 October 1941 to 4 July 1942) , here, Soviet Sailors fought hand to hand with German military divisions. Their stand, while unsuccessful, allowed the Red Army time to lay plans to defend the Crimea and defence of Stalingrad. Sevastopol was retaken by Soviet forces after a three day siege ending with its capture on May 9th 1944.
It was in the Crimea that the Black fleet developed the highly successful tactic of speed (gun) boats filled with landing parties (Marines) which struck the German enemy from the sea with great swiftness and force.
So successful was the Soviet navy that the Germans were unable to make a single naval landing in the rear of the Soviet Army.
During WW2 nearly 300,000 Soviet sailors received decorations, of which 508 were awarded the highly prestigious "Hero of the Soviet Union", 87 ships and units were given the name "Guards", 202 ships and naval units were decorated with Orders for distinguished service
SOVIET NAVY DAY - 26th JULY
The first Soviet Navy Day was celebrated on 26th July 1940, since then it became a tradition for warships in Leningrad, Sevastopol, Vladivostok, Poliarny, Tallinn, Odessa and other seaports to fire broadsides to honour the battle traditions of the navy and of the services rendered to the country. Mass naval games, swimming, and diving, demonstrations of naval landings and public festivals. On this day Soviet sailors demonstrated their fighting readiness, their loyalty and fidelity to their Soviet motherland.
FAMOUS BLUE & WHITE SHIRT The soviet sailors famous horizontal blue and white stripped shirt is called Telnyashka source of pride to every Red Navy man.
SEVASTOPOL - Captain Alexander’s 35th Battery The spirit of the Red Navy, is best illustrated by the following account from the Times of July 25th 1942 of an incident in defence of the Sevastopol
“ Gathering round him his marines of Captain Alexander’s 35th Battery on the Malakhov Kurgan, the political commander spoke these words :—
“I know that everyone of you would a hundred times rather fight the most desperate sea battle than be dive-bombed once you are ashore.But the Germans have forced us tp fight on shore.Eighty-two years ago a Russian Admiral ordered his men to sink their vessels in this bay of Sevastopol.Those orders were obeyed and the guns were brought ashore to defend the city, as these our guns do to-day.
Twenty-four years ago Lenin ordered our ships to be sunk at Novorossisk—these orders were obeyed.Last year Stalin ordered us to blow up the Dnieper Dam and we did. Now we have to die. We have to die for those who, one day, will return to Sevastopol; we have to die for those who will one day build another Dnieper Dam.We have to die for those who will go on fighting at sea.’
“The men removed their caps and stood silent for a short time and then swore an oath to conquer or die.They returned to their guns wearing under their Red Army blouses their striped sailor jerseys ‘ for luck’ and twisted round their forage caps hat-bands bearing the names of their ships.A few days later they were surrounded and thousands of bombs fell on the Malakhov Kurgan; they fought till the last shell had been fired and then blew up themselves and their guns.No white flag ever flew at Sevastopol! “
The Times, July 25, 1942. "I am filled with admiration for the gallant exploits of the Red Navy in face of numerically superior forces" Stafford Cripps British Ambassador to the Soviet Union
THE OATH OF THE RED NAVY MAN
I, a citizen of the U.S.S.R. entering the ranks of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Navy, do take the oath and solemnly swear to be honourable, brave, disciplined and watchful fighter, to keep strictly all naval and state secrets, to fulfil obediently all naval regulations and the orders of my commanders, commissars and chiefs.
I swear to apply myself conscientiously to acquiring knowledge of naval affairs, to guard unsleepingly the naval and national possessions, to remain devoted to my last breath to my people, to my Soviet Fatherland, and the Workers' and Peasants' Government.
I Shall ever be ready at the command of the Workers' and Peasants' Government to go forward for the defence of my fatherland - the U.S.S.R., and as a fighter of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Navy.
I swear to defend her with courage, with skill, with dignity and with honour, sparing neither my blood nor my life to achieve victory over the enemy.
If of malice I betray this my solemn oath, then let me be visited with strict punishment of Soviet law, general hatred, and the contempt of all working people.
As the greatest Englishman only dates from 1940, when he took over as Premier, and Tory leader, from the arch-appeaser, Neville Chamberlain.
It was not always so. Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill had been a Liberal and a sharp critic of the party he was later to lead. He had, never the less, always been an uncompromising anti-Socialist.
Essentially it is as leader of the wartime Coalition, as leader of the Tory Opposition from 1945 to 1951 and as Prime Minister 1951-55, when he resigned, that his admirers wish to remember him.
AT BLENHEIM
Born on November 30, 1874, in Blenheim Palace, the mammoth mansion commemorating the famous victory of his ancestor the soldier of fortune John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, Churchill was a son of Lord Randolph Churchill, himself third son of the seventh Duke of Marlborough.
His mother was an American, daughter of a former owner of the New York Times.
He passed through the normal ruling-class educational establishments, having an undistinguished career at Harrow.
It was said that his father was puzzled what to do with his son until one day when he saw him playing with tin soldiers, it was said he had several thousands of them.
Lord Randolph asked him whether he would like to be a soldier, and as the answer was “Yes” he was sent to Sandhurst to which he was admitted after the third attempt at the entrance examination.
SUDAN WAR
In 1895 he was gazetted in the 4th Hussars and the same year voluntarily attached himself to the Spanish forces fighting the guerrillas in Cuba.
When there was "fighting on the North-West Frontier of India he joined the Malakand Field Force. He got leave from his regiment and became war correspondent for the Allahabad Pioneer. The London Daily Telegraph agreed to publish letters from him at £5 a column.
He then managed to get himself an honorary commission in the 21st Lancers and went to the Sudan, acting as war correspondent for the Tory Morning Post at £15 a column. He took part in the cavalry charge the British Army's last at the Battle of Omdurman.
In 1898 he resigned his commission to enter politics but was defeated as Tory candidate for Oldham the next year.
Once more the attraction of war led him to South Africa as war correspondent, again for the. Morning Post at £150 a month salary, with all expenses paid.
Within a fortnight of his arrival he was captured, escaping three week later (by breaking his parole, it is said) to continue his journalistic activities. (photo British concentration camp for Boer civilians)
These journalistic assignments started Churchill on an active writing career, during which he produced about 60 books, starting with "The Story of the Malakand Field Force" and including his version of the Second World War, in several large volumes.
By the age of 26 he scored his first political success, when he won Oldham in 1900; the tide was flowing to the Liberals and in 1905 he crossed the floor to join the Liberals, a deed for which many Tories never forgave him.
This was the period of his famous denunciation of the Tory Party: "A party of great vested interests, banded together in a formidable federation; corruption at home, aggression to cover it abroad; the trickery of tariff juggles, the tyranny of a well fed party machine; sentiment by the bucketful, patriotism by the imperial pint: the open hand at the public exchequer, the open door at the public house; dear food for the million, cheap labour for the millionaire."
Two years later he entered the Cabinet as President of the Board of Trade and from then until 1929 he was rarely out of office and occupied Ministerial offices, either as a Liberal or Tory, on more occasions than any other man in British politics.
Bitter class conflicts marked the period before the First World War, including dockers, miners and railway strikes.
STRIKES SHOT
'It was Churchill, then Home Secretary, who sent the Metropolitan Police in force into South Wales during a miners' s
trike, leading to serious clashes at Tonypandy in the Rhondda and the death of one miner (Samuel Boyce).
"At the instance of Mr.Winston Churchill,"
wrote the Webbs of the 1911 railway strike,
"an overpowering display was made with the troops… without requisition by the civil authorities, at the mere request of the companies."
A strike demonstration was fared on at Llanelly and there were two fatal casualties. ( Leonard Worsell and John John)
During the Liverpool Transport Strike of 1911 Michael Prendergast and Thomas Sutcliffe were killed by soilders.
At this time he earned the title Napoleon of Sidney Street" for taking part in a sagely flamboyant attack on a house in this East End street where some anarchists were cornered. Enormous publicity was given with photographs of Churchill in top hat and frock coat watching as Guardsmen fired until the house went up in flames.
When the Asquith Government declared war on Germany in 1914 Churchill, as First Lord of the Admiralty, eventually persuaded the Cabinet, against military advice, to try to force the Dardenelles. Then followed the bloody battles of Gallipoli in which tens of thousands of British. Australian and New Zealand soldiers perished.
After the "khaki" election of 1918. won by the Lloyd George Coalition s promises to hang the Kaiser and build homes for heroes, Churchill became Secretary for Air and for War, then one Ministry.
He did his best to form an anti-Bolshevik bloc, arming and equipping counter-revolutionary; White Guard forces.
On him lies the main responsibility for the organisation of this attack by 14 States on the young Socialist Revolution. A British expedition landed a Murmansk, but after spending £100 million (a very large sum in those days) the interventionist were defeated—above all by the stormy "Hands off Russia" agitation in the Labour movement culminating in the Councils of Action threat of a General Strike in 1920.
He often publicly regretted the failure of the attempts, in which he played a leading part, to crush the Russian Revolution. As he put it in 1950 "the failure to strangle Bolshevism at birth lies heavy upon us today."
After the break-up of the Coalition in 1922. Churchill lost the seat in Dundee he had held since 1908, In that election William Gallacher who helped bring about Churchill's well merited defeat, polled 6,682 votes, as Communist; that was the last Dundee saw of its former Liberal M.P.
Churchill soon accepted the fact that the Liberals were in decline and by the 1924 General Election he had worked his passage back to the Tory ranks Elected for Epping he became Baldwin's Chancellor of the Exchequer.
1926 EDITOR
His policy in that office led to the General Strike of May 1926 when the British trade union movement stopped work in aid the miners, whose employers were demanding heavy wage cuts and longer hours.
Churchill became strike breaker in chief, took over the Editorship of the British Gazette, the blackleg Government daily paper published after the printers went on strike.
When the rise of the Indian nationalist movement forced the Government to consider concessions. Churchill opposed, telling an Albert Hall demonstration that "I am against this surrender to Gandhi."
Among a minority of Tories, he saw the menace to British interests of the rise of Hitler in the '30s, and opposed the appeasement policy of Neville Chamberlain.
When the "phoney" war period ended in May 1940, he became Prime Minister of the Coalition Government just a few days before the fall of France and Dunkirk.
SECOND FRONT
When in June 1941 Hitler attacked the Soviet Union, within in a few hours of the attack Churchill announced his support for the Russians, while making plain that he had not abandoned his lifelong opposition to Socialism and Communism.
Conditions were created for an Anglo-Soviet alliance and he took part with Roosevelt and Stalin in the Teheran and Yalta conferences, where the three leaders concerted their plans for defeating the common enemy.
But Churchill was disturbed by the prospect that a victorious Soviet army would liberate Eastern Europe and the whole of Germany not only from the Nazis but from all Big Business domination.
He was deaf throughout 1942 and 1943 to the popular demand for a Second Front in Europe.
Only in June 1944, after the Soviet army had inflicted crippling defeats on the German armies was the Second Front eventually opened. But it seems that this was mainly because he was alarmed that the Soviet forces would be first to occupy all Germany.
Many commentators have accused him of causing the heavy concentration of Anglo-American efforts in the Mediterranean and the hard battles up the Italian hilly peninsula in the hope of breaking through to restore the Balkan and eventually, all the East European, monarchies and reactionary regimes.
IN GREECE
In Greece he was responsible for the bloody suppression by British forces of the Greek national Resistance movement after fighting in Athens which brought the restoration of the unpopular Greek monarchy and the temporary triumph of reaction.
From his own pen comes confirmation, in his Second World War memoirs, that in March 1945 he was imbued with the desire that "a new front must be immediately created against her [Russia's] onward sweep . . that this front in Europe-should be as far east as possible."
This was soon after he had praised the Soviet army and its heroic soldiers, who had "torn the guts out" of Hitler's armies
When in 1945 President Truman and Stalin met at Potsdam he invited Attlee to attend with him at the time when the 1945 General Election result was awaiting declaration.
Hoping to cash in on his popularity as a war leader, during which his great powers of oratory were skilfully used to stimulate the nation against Hitler. Churchill made a nationwide tour for votes for the Tories.
But nothing could check the Labour landslide; in London a bewildered Churchill was booed by vast crowds.
COLD WAR
Less than a year later, on March 5th 1946 he made the notorious speech at Fulton, Missouri, which was the declaration of the cold War and a direct rejection of his Praise for the Soviet Union in wartime and the agreements of friendship to which he was party.
Over 100 Labour M.P.s signed a resolution calling on the Government to repudiate the speech, but Premier Attlee and Mr Ernest Bevin, Foreign Secretary, avoided condemning it.
Again at Zurich, 18 months later, Churchill made yet another programme speech directed toward, bringing West Germany into the Anglo-American dominated Western alliance and so started, the process which ended with the formation of NATO.
In 1949 the Atlantic Pact was signed. The Labour leaders' acceptance of Churchill's policy of anti-Soviet war alliance helped to bring their downfall and the Tory victory of 1951Churchill was opposed by Communists in his constituency of Woodford in both 1950 and 1951 – first Bill Brookes, later Daily Worker circulation manager, and then J.R. Campbell then Daily Worker Editor.
At 76 Churchill was again Prime Minister. Adopting then Policy he described as "negotiation from strength" he pursued his cold war aims.
On the other hand he saw the futility of continuing the Korean War and in 1953 was the only Western leader to call on the U.S. to make a truce. He also advocated a Summit meeting with the Soviet leaders for discussions to reduce world tension. None however took place during his Premiership, which ended on April 6, 1955, when he handed over to Sir Anthony Eden (as Lord Avon then was).
After his resignation Churchill never again achieved the dominant role he had played, although in even in his last year as M.P.he did not stand down till 1964 he was a frequent visitor to the Chamber.
While he became a Knight of the Garter in 1953 he did not take the earldom which could have been his as a past Prime Minister In April 1963, by a joint vote of the U.S. Congress, he was awarded the unique title' of Honorary American Citizen. It was an appropriate comment on much in his personality and policies
Daily Worker - Monday January 25th 1965
EXTRA NOTES
During the 1945 General Election Churchill was heavily booed at Walthamstow Stadium the audiance demanding "We want Attlee". Next day Churchill himself was nearly hurt. On Tooting Bec Common, South London when 17 year old Michael Gloor Le Pelley, tossed a lit firecracker at the Prime Minister. During the War Churchill had been booed when visiting bombed out families and later avoided the East End.
On election eve Churchill felt victory "in his bones," warned that "if there should be a landslide to the left, many countries on the Continent would slide, not into decent socialism, but into the violence of Communism. . . .If we go down, all the ninepins of Europe will fall." Then the Prime Minister breezed off to Hendaye, in the French Basque country, source: Time Magazine July 16th 1945.
During the Spanish Civil War, unlike Edward Heath later Tory PM, Churchill backed the fascist Franco.Winston Churchill had stated in the Evening Standard 10th August 1936 that “The Spanish government had no legal or moral claim to support Spain, since it was being subverted and devowed by Communism” he was still supporting Franco as late as December 1938
As early as 1952 Local Authorities around Heathrow Airport had recognised that the noise levels from aircraft at Heathrow Airport had become unacceptable.
The Local authorities (Airport) Committee was established in 1952 consisting of the Boroughs of Heston & Isleworth, Slough, and Urban District Council's of Egham, Feltham, Hayes & Harlington, Staines and Sudbury, Yiewsley & West Drayton
The original committee was formed to examine problems arising from the construction of the Airport or its operation which may affect local authorities.
It was stated by Feburary in 1959, The committee had not only been in regular correspondence with the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation but also meet on two occasions with the airport Commandant and stressed its desire that every possible step shall be taken to reduce the noise made by aircraft in order that as little disturbance as possible shall be made to the residents in the neighbourhood f the airport stressed the desire.
It was stated that, since inception the committee had received numerous complaints about the noise of jet planes, Boeing 707s, low flying planes, fumes and black smoke on take off
The committee had also asked the Minister to impose a reasonable maximum noise level,
It was noted that at New York had restrictions on noise already in place and it was agreed to request the Minister impose similar restrictions at London Airport.
The Committee realise that despite its efforts the noise from aircraft using the airport is still a considerable annoyance to a large number of residents in the vicinity.
The committee also feels that in view of the proposals for greater use of the airport in the future, its efforts to see that every possible step is taken to ensure that the noise is reduced to a minimum must be continued
Uxbridge Gazette 2 February 1959
Photo
John McDonnell Hayes MP hold replica mace to recall John McDonnell's wielding the mace (15th January 2009) out of frustration at the lack of democracy in the Government's decision to bypass Parliament over the Heathrow 3rd runway plan.
The great Folk artists Ewan Macoll and Peggy Seeger played the Uxbridge Cente, The Greenway, Uxbridge Saturday 23rd November 1985
Organised by Uxbridge Labour Party Cowley & Hillingdon West Branches.
This event, like so many in the eighties in Hillingdon was organised by the well respected and hard working duo of Tony Rogers and Jon Davy. Such social events kept are spirits going under the dark days of Thatcherism.
In Ireland those who fought for independence during the 1916 Easter uprising are mythologised, Indeed it is said that if everyone who claimed to be in Dublin G.P.O (General Post Office) on the day of the Rising, had actually done so, they could not all have fitted inside.
However, one group of Irishmen who were defiantly not inside the Post Office on the day of the rising, were The Irish Rugby Corps.
The Irish Rugby Football Corps (Ireland had been home national rugby champions 1914) had been established just two weeks after World War One had been declared, as part of the Irish Association of Volunteer Training Corps.
It was organised on a similar bases to the English and Scottish Football, Sporting "Pals" Battalions.Frank Browning President Irish Rugby Football Union clubs became the driving forces behind the Corps issuing a circular to Dublin Rugby Clubs in 1914 encouraging members to join up.
Almost 200 enlisted at Lansdowne Road, in D company of the 7th Battalion of the Dublin Fusiliers, those older or "unfit" were sent to Dublin to establish a "home guard".
Both groups would come to a unhappy end. For those who were declared "fit" and enlisted ended up in the "hell" that wasGallipoli and those that remained behind, literally walked into the Easter Rising.
Francis "Chicken" Henry Browning had been President of the Irish Rugby Football Union clubs since 1912 and became the The Irish Rugby Union Football Corps Lieutenant-Col. Frank Henry Browning, had been born in Dublin on 23rd June 1868. He had been a first class cricket player, having played for Marlborough, Ireland and he was also a member of MCC, In 1889 according to Wisden he made over 2000 runs. Browning had also been a keen rugby player, playing half back for Trinity, Wanderers and Ireland.
The Irish Rugby Union Football Corps, Commander was H.J. Miller, Second in Command R. McDillion, Platoon Commanders E.A. MacNair, W.G.F Allen, A.S.M. Imrie and J.W. Frith. On the day of the rising 24th April 1916, the Irish Rugby Union Football Corps headed by Browning had returned to Dublin from a route march and drill practice with drums beating and standards held a loft and marched straight into the maelstrom that was the Rising, totally unaware of the momentous events that were unfurling around them.The Corps in civilian clothes with arm-bands were carrying rifles but not ammunition; in the ensuing encounter with the "Rebels" seven members of the Corps were wounded, four fatally. Browning was shot in Haddington Road, (Beggars Bush) and died of his wounds two days later 26th April 1916.
Browning was therefore the only first class cricketer to be killed during the War for Independence and only member of the MCC to have been involved in the 1916 Easter Rising.
Francis Henry Browning is buried in Deansgrange Cemetery, South Dublin. A headstone was erected by the Irish Rugby Football Union Volunteer Corps in memory of "an honourable comrade and true and distinguished sportsman."
NOTES:
Minute Book 1914-1917 of the Irish Rugby Football Union Volunteer Corps is still in existence.
Francis Browning lived at 17 Herbert Park, Dublin.
Note: Click on music sheets to enlarge
