World War II
A series of limericks was used to great effect in World War II to obtain priority in a dockyard to have new guns fitted to the Dutch sloop Soemba.
The first was:
- A report has come in from the Soemba
- that their salvoes go off like a Rhumba
- two guns, they sound fine
- but the third five point nine
- he am bust and refuse to go boomba.
- by Captain Nicholl (Royal Navy)
The series continued up to a final limerick by the vice-chief of staff of the Royal Dutch navy.
Read more about this topic: Limerick (poetry)
Famous quotes containing the words world and/or war:
“There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest—whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories—comes afterwards. These are games; one must first answer.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“Stiller ... took part in the Spanish Civil War ... It is not clear what impelled him to this military gesture. Probably many factors were combined—a rather romantic Communism, such as was common among bourgeois intellectuals at that time.”
—Max Frisch (1911–1991)