Where are we going, Sergeant?
And when are we coming home?

We’ll take you down to Salisbury Plain
And we’ll drill you over and over again
You’ll learn to salute and to stand on parade
To march and to shoot and to throw a grenade

And we’ll turn you into soldiers,
every man of you

Where are we going, Sergeant?
And when are we coming home?

It’s the train down to Folkestone, then over to France
Kitchener’s army is on the advance
If you’re eager for action, you’ll soon get your turn,
At Loos and at Ypres, it’s a hard way to learn

And it should have been over by Christmas,
but it can’t last much longer...

Where are we going, Sergeant?
And when are we coming home?

It’s back up the line to the Front once again
Another big push, with thousands of men
Wait in a trench for the big guns to stop
Then ready, fix bayonets and over the top

To take another few yards of ground,
and try to hold it

Where did you take them, Sergeant?
And when are they coming home?

We led them into the mouth of Hell
To be battered and blasted with shot and with shell
Caught on the wire or drowned in the mud
Where the soil is so precious it’s paid for in blood

And there’s few enough coming home,
so very few of them...