A ‘whizz-bang’ was a shell from quick-firing gun that travelled faster than the speed of sound so soldiers heard the ‘whizz’ of the shall before the ‘bang’ of the gun. The music is a parody of the earlier song called ‘Hush! Here comes the Dream Man,’ a lullaby written in 1911 and performed by Charles Hawtrey as a boy soprano in 1930. So the original chorus of ‘Hush! Here comes the Dream Man, Hush! Here comes the Dream Man, Now you children, run up the stairs, Put on your nighties and say your prayers’ becomes, ‘Hush! Here comes a Whizzbang! Hush! Here comes a Whizzbang! Now you soldiers, get down those stairs, Down in your dugouts and say your prayers.’ This song featured in the 1969 film ‘O What A Lovely War.’
