this is the song of the gremlins,as told by the p

this is the song of the gremlins,as told by the p.
r.
u.
, believed by the few, not many, but neverthe less, it is true.
when you' re 7 miles up in the heavens, it is sucha lovely spot, it's the 17 degrees below zero, that isn,t so bloody well hot.
when you' re flying you will see gremlins, green, gamboge, and gld;
 gremlins, male,female, and neuter, gremlins both young and old.
they' ll bang and they' ll abash and they' ll batter, they' ll bite through your aerilon wiresl then as you orbit to pancake, they' ll stick hot toasting irons in your tyres.
it is then that you' ll see all the gremlins will muddle up all of your maps, the spherical, middle aged gremlins will spin on your stick like a top.
now that was the song of the gremlins as told by the pru, believed by thefew, not many, but nevertheless itis true.
this song was collected in the 1970's by don brian from john short of wagga wagga, nsw, who served with 76 squadron in new guinea.
 john presented the songs to don as typed manuscripts.
 the song was a bit confused when I got it--verse 3 here was originally verse 2, the first line of which was missing, so I added the line, and the first line of verse 5 was missing as well, so I added that line.
 the tune is 'the next man to die',
which was sung in the services, to my knowledge, prior to wwi, where the tune seems to have been appropriated by the ruyal flying corps, and the fledgling raaf, and american flying corps, who used the tune for 'the dying aviator',
up to and including the korean war, a parody of the dying stockman family of songs, as well as the tune being used for 'new' songs, like this one.
 ---also see my boer war or wwi collection of songs for the original song, the last verse/chorus of which is used, thoughto a different tune, in paratroopers red river valley, sung from wwii- vietnam at least.
 pru= public relations unit.