Note 1
The ditty or ballad goes as follows:

I, a young airman, was bound for Iraq
My girl said to me,you must stay on the tack
And save all your money till you've got a sack
And we will get married as soon as you're back

But when out in Iraq a few months I'd been
I got a letter from my Blighty queen
Saying "I got married a fortnight ago,
Five years is a long time and goes very slow"

I took to the bottle, I took to the glass
I knocked back McEwens as long as they'd last
Until one night in Baghdad the S.P.'s caught me
And a hard-hearted C.O. said "Fourteen C.C."

Now Baghdad's a city of wonderful sights
The bints in the brothels they all dress in tights
They drink ginger-ale while you pay for champagne
Then they say "Not tonight dear, but see me again"

Just fourteen more days and the boat will be here
Fourteen more days and we'll leave Basrah's shore.
And the finest sight you can see of Iraq
Is from the arse-end of a troopship that ain't coming back

N.B. This was usually followed by a heart-rending version of 'Shaibah
Blues'

Note 2
Extract from Ottawa Citizen, September 12, 2004 Obituaries. Birchall, Leonard J Air Commodore (retired) On Friday Sep 10, 2004 in Kingston, Ontario, in his 90th year. On April 4th 1942, while on patrol southeast of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) he and his crew gave the warning that prevented the Japanese fleet from surprising the Allies as they had done at Pearl Harbour. For this action he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. Shot down, he spent the remainder of the war in prisoner-of-war camps in Japan