"Ten German Bombers" is a

children's song A children's song may be a nursery rhyme set to music, a song that children invent and share among themselves or a modern creation intended for entertainment, use in the home or education. Although children's songs have been recorded and studied ...

, originally sung by

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

schoolchildren during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and also the British Military. It has been adopted as a

football chant A football chant or terrace chant is form of vocalisation performed by supporters of association football, typically during football matches. Football chanting is an expression of collective identity, most often used by fans to express their p ...

by English

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

fans at matches against

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. The song has recently been criticised as discriminatory by both the

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

and the FA with fans chanting it facing bans from competitions.

Lyrics

"Ten German Bombers" makes reference to German bombers and defensive action by the

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

during

. It is sung to tune of "

She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain" (sometimes referred to as "Coming 'Round the Mountain") is a traditional folk song often categorized as children's music. The song is derived from the Christian spiritual known as "When the Chariot Comes". ...

". It is a simple

repetitive song Repetitive songs contain a large proportion of repeated words or phrases. Simple repetitive songs are common in many cultures as widely spread as the Caribbean, Southern India and Finland. The best-known examples are probably children's songs. Other ...

and the verse pattern follows a

cumulative song A cumulative song is a song with a simple verse structure modified by progressive addition so that each verse is longer than the verse before. Cumulative songs are popular for group singing, in part because they require relatively little memoriza ...

format, similar to "

Ten Green Bottles "Ten Green Bottles" is a popular children's repetitive song that consists of a single verse of music that is repeated, with each verse decrementing by one the number of bottles on the wall. The first verse is: This pattern continues until t ...

": These verses are then repeated with one more bomber being shot down each time. The 10th verse becomes "There was one" and "shot it down". The last verse becomes "There were no German bombers in the air" and "’Cause the RAF from England shot them down".

In football

Since the beginning of the 1990s, the song has been sung by English

fans at some matches against the

Germany national football team The Germany national football team (german: link=no, Deutsche Fußballnationalmannschaft) represents Germany in men's international football and played its first match in 1908. The team is governed by the German Football Association (''Deutsch ...

. It is typically accompanied by horizontally outstretched arms and a gentle swaying motion, as if to mimic an aircraft in flight, and on some occasions, the word "air" has been replaced with "war". Such vocal behaviour was eventually deemed to be racially offensive by

The Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the ...

. In December 2005,

Sven-Göran Eriksson Sven-Göran Eriksson (; born 5 February 1948) is a Swedish football manager and former player. After an unassuming playing career as a right-back, Eriksson went on to experience major success in club management between 1977 and 2001, winning 18 ...

, the then manager, asked fans to refrain from it at the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

, a plea echoed by

Greater Manchester Police Greater Manchester Police (GMP) is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement within the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester in North West England. , Greater Manchester Police employed 6,866 police officers, 3,524 memb ...

and other authorities. Television commercials starring

David Beckham David Robert Joseph Beckham (; born 2 May 1975) is an English former professional footballer, the current president and co-owner of Inter Miami CF and co-owner of Salford City. Known for his range of passing, crossing ability and bending fr ...

Michael Owen Michael James Owen (born 14 December 1979) is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker for Liverpool, Real Madrid, Newcastle United, Manchester United and Stoke City, as well as for the England national team. Since r ...

, and

Wayne Rooney Wayne Mark Rooney (born 24 October 1985) is an English professional football manager and former player, who is the manager of Major League Soccer club D.C. United in the United States. He spent much of his playing career as a forward while als ...

requesting the same were also planned. Similar issues attended the football song " Two World Wars and One World Cup". These moves were criticised by some elements of the British press. In December 2005, Tony Parsons, writing in ''

The Daily Mirror ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'', stated that: :"Less than a lifetime ago the Germans inflicted untold misery on the world. If English football fans choose to deal with that a mere 60 years later by holding their arms out and pretending to be

Lancaster bomber The Avro Lancaster is a British World War II, Second World War heavy bomber. It was designed and manufactured by Avro as a contemporary of the Handley Page Halifax, both bombers having been developed to the same specification, as well as the S ...

s, I would suggest that the Germans are getting off quite lightly." German fans in 2006, exhilarated by their team's three previous victories in the World Cup, adopted rival songs. Supporters of the two teams engaged in impromptu chanting competitions in the centre of

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

. Elsewhere the answer from German fans at football matches was often the Nazi song ' ("Bombs to England"). The well known and often varied chant "Without England we're heading to Berlin" ("Ohne England fahr'n wir nach Berlin") uses the melody of " Yellow Submarine". During the 2006 World Cup, the anti-German German musician Torsun (half of the group

Egotronic Egotronic is a German electropunk band from Berlin formed in 2000. It is well known for its Antideutsch political views. Band history After a couple of projects released through self-publishing, Egotronic joined the Hamburg record label Aud ...

) recorded a techno cover of the song. The song and its accompanying YouTube video (featuring footage of German planes being shot down, the

Wembley Goal In association football, a ghost goal (or phantom goal) is either a goal wrongly awarded despite the ball not having crossed the goal line, or a goal wrongly not given despite the ball having crossed the line. In an attempt to combat ghost goals, ...

, a burning German flag, etc.) attracted media attention in Germany, as well as from the British tabloid ''

News of the World The ''News of the World'' was a weekly national Tabloid journalism#Red tops, red top Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling En ...

''. The song was eventually included in the World Cup themed compilation ''Weltmeister Hits 2006''. The song is also sung by

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

fans at home matches at

Windsor Park Windsor Park is a football stadium in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is the home ground of Linfield F.C. who own the land the stadium is built on, while the Irish Football Association own and operate the stadium and pay Linfield an annual rent ...

, and also at numerous away matches. This rendition replaces the lyric England with Ulster. It has become a firm fans favourite since the start of the millennium and can heard being sung by the energetic Green and White Army in The Kop for periods in excess of fifteen minutes. In November 2014, during the qualification game against Romania in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

for

UEFA Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe o ...

, the crowd enthusiastically sang ''Ten German Bombers'' at the final whistle. During the 2021 European Football Championship, both the

and the

Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world an ...

(FA) decided that fans singing "Ten German Bombers" would be banned from the competition. The FA further condemned taking part in "discriminatory or disrespectful" chants. Fans nonetheless singing "Ten German Bombers" in front of

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

were covered by the German and international media.

Alternatives

Northern Ireland supporters also sing the song replacing England with Ulster, and this song is usually followed by "

The Dam Busters March ''The Dam Busters March'' is the theme to the 1955 British war film '' The Dam Busters''. The musical composition, by Eric Coates, has achieved the distinction of becoming synonymous with both the film and the real Operation Chastise. ''The Dam ...

". Fans of Rangers also regularly sing "Ten German Bombers", replacing the word "England" with "Britain".

Notes

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External links

Offside, 23 March
by Duleep Allirajah Music controversies English culture England national football team songs English children's songs England–Germany football rivalry Songs of World War II Songs about World War II Songs about Germany Songs about the United Kingdom Rangers F.C. songs Cumulative songs Anti-German sentiment in Europe Articles containing video clips

Lyrics

In football

Alternatives

See also

Notes

External links