Yes. Of the dozens of stanzas that have been printed, most are insipid rather than bawdy. Rugby song collections are an exception, but they appear late and, when the song appears, it usu. seems to stem from the text in "Rugby Songs" ("The [Three] German Officers"), in 1967.


Roy Palmer has a slightly different set in his collection "What a Lovely War" in the early '80s. Gordon Hall, Palmer's source, sings something a little different still on the matching casette from Veteran Tapes.

A privately printed US collection dated 1930 and 1935 has some bawdy stanzas collected from WW I veterans - but they're arranged without regard to popularity. I'm almost ready to say something more discursive about the song and its relatives, but want to glean some more stanzas and opinions first. Texts from children & grandchildren of WW I veterans anywhere would be most welcome, regardless of contents.

And Joe: could the several "Mlle." threads be combined for simplicity's sake?

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I combined the three threads into two. and left only this thread open. That should help some.
-Joe Offer-