Two interesting pages from a random issue of Railways magazine Volume 3, No. 21 January 1942 which I scanned before I passed them on.
Above is a 1941 era Cruiser tank “en route to embarkation points” – official LNER photograph – and obviously a propaganda shot. such open daytime shipping shows our allied armoured might, replacements only a year and a half after the disastrous loss of tanks at Dunkirk and the Fall Of France in May 1940.
And now from WW2 to the American Civil War (amongst the early Wars to use railroads)
“Shoo! Fly! don’t bother me!
For I belong
to Company G!”
This 1860s minstrel song instrumental can be heard here on this Library Of Congress https://www.loc.gov/item/afcreed000121/
According to Wikipedia: “Shoo Fly” is among the songs (“John Brown’s Body” is another) claimed as compositions by T. Brigham Bishop.
According to Bishop’s account, he wrote “Shoo Fly, Don’t Bother Me” during the Civil War while assigned to command a company of black soldiers.
One of the soldiers, dismissing some remarks of his fellow soldiers, exclaimed “Shoo fly, don’t bother me,” which inspired Bishop to write the song, including in the lyrics the unit’s designation, “Company G”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoo_Fly,_Don%27t_Bother_Me
Wikipedia also mentioned a Spanish-American War troop connection in the 1898: “when flies and the yellow fever and mosquito were a serious enemy.
Bing Crosby included the song in a medley on his album
(about 22 minutes) in on Join Bing and Sing Along (1959)
and its the second track on the Disney Children’s Songs album No. 3https://youtu.be/49kPW5E9L5E
… notably without the Company G part.
So Shoo Fly – temporary railway loop or American Civil War minstrel lyric sung by black (Union?) Soldiers (of the USCT US Coloured Troops?)
And the Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy from Company B? That’s another story, another war and another Company.
Blog posted by Mark Man Of TIN, 7 October 2022
Postscript
I have not followed this Anne Parrish link up for The Perpetual Bachelor (1925) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Parrish
Sidetracked 