Lighter, according to his service record, Godfrey spent his days in uniform at a couple of airship bases in the south of England and at Dunkirk. To my knowledge he never went further afield. Of course, like most tunesmiths from Tin Pan Alley (or Denmark Street, or whatever the British equivalent is), he also wrote songs about Dixie and all sorts of other places he'd never laid eyes on; "Mulligatawny, Where The Soup Comes From" is a typical example. So I'm not sure we can read much into the lyrics, except that his experience in the military was unhappy enough that I can well imagine his using the F-word to express his frustration about being there.

At the same time, my guess is that Godfrey's contribution may have been more the music than the lyrics, which doubtlessly evolved according to time and place. The many different clever versions that were created post-1940 are testament to the song's malleability.

Your suggestion re: Keith Prowse seems quite plausible to me. If he'd had a copy of the original score, I wonder if it still exists and where it might be? Certainly, no such memorabilia has survived in the hands of his offspring here in Canada.

Thanks for the kind words about the website. I hope it inspires others on the many now-forgotten pop composers. The British ones, in particular, have been overlooked, as I note on the site.