Johnnie was here yesterday, he's gone today, he's forgotten tomorrow, c'ést la guerre.
Do not despair/For Johnny-head-in-air;
He sleeps as sound/As Johnny underground.
Fetch out no shroud/For Johnny-in-the-cloud;
And keep your tears/For him in after years.
Better by far/For Johnny-the-bright-star,
To keep your head,/And see his children fed.
This little poem was one of a series of poems written in 1941 by John Pudsey (1909 –1977) an RAF intelligence officer., and will be familiar to many readers from its use in the 1945 British film The Way to the Stars. The film title was derived from the RAF motto Per Ardua ad Astra (striving to the stars) which you may think is appropriate to the title of this thread.