G'day Bugsy,

From the Australian perspective there is Suvla Bay, a song in which a girl (in "an old Australian homestead, with roses round the door") learns of her sweetheart's death at Gallipoli and becomes a nurse - rejecting any other offers of love.

This is alleged (by Bill Scott, at least) to have been banned by the Australian authorities as "detrimental to morale". I can't pick it up in the DigiTrad - or in SuperSearch - so it's not there. I had thought that i might have posted it in another thread, so I will check my complaints about songs not yet harvested. If I can't give you a link, I will post it (next week ... after the Illawarra Folk festival.

The Australians also had Dinky-Di, a song reviling Army staff who polished seats while diggers fought in the trenches, to the tune of Villikins and His Dinah. This is in DigiTrad ... under the spelling Dinky Die. I seem to remember a few more Australian ones listed in the Allens publication World War Songs (mostly from sheet music published during the two World Wars) but they were less well known. I will check when I get home.

Regards,

Bob Bolton