In Robert Graves' memoir of the Great War he mentions various hits of the time. Most seem to be lost to history - like this one:

And I never get a knock
When the boys call Cock
Cockety ock, ock
Cock Robin!
In my old red vest I mean to cut a shine...

(I mean, does anyone say "cut a shine" any more?)

As he waited for five hours to make a hopeless attack across No Man's Land on some German trenches, Graves kept singing:

S'nice smince spie
S'nice smince spie...
I don't like ham, lamb or jam
And I don't like roley poley

But when I see a snince smince spie
I asks for a helping twice.

Is there an aged 'Catter whose 99-year-old grandpa used to creak out this song on Armistice Day, remembering when he was young, handsome, brave and foolish, and following his officers' orders to charge through gas at equally young, handsome, brave and foolish boys and men on the opposite side?

(I was talking to someone the other day who posited that the disastrous series of wars on European soil throughout the 20th century was our Civil War. A theory that rings absolutely true.)