Lyrics/Muziek: Roger Waters
Zang: Roger Waters

Oorspronkelijk opgenomen voor het album The Wall, maar door ruimte gebrek weg gelaten. Wel als single uitgekomen in 1982 (b-kant “Bring The Boys Back Home”) en uiteindelijk op de geremasterde The Final Cut (2004) uitgebracht.

Het verhaal gaat over Roger’s vader die in WWII in Anzio sneuvelde en sarcastisch naar Koning George van England voor het sturen van een onderscheiding, die in zijn ogen het gemis van zijn vader nooit kan vergoeden.

Het nummer is in de film wel gebruikt, maar in twee delen gesplitst

Terug te vinden op:

When the Tigers Broke Free (single, 1982)
Echoes
The Final Cut (2004 remaster)

Vinyl uitgave in Nederland:

Catalogusnummer: 1A 006 64875 (Harvest)

Songtekst:

It was just before dawn one miserable morning
in black forty-four
when the forward commander was told to sit tight
when asked that his men be withdrawn
And the generals gave thanks as the other ranks
held back the enemy tanks – for a while
And then the Anzio beachhead was held for the price
of a few hundred ordinary lives

And kind old King George sent mother a note
when he heard that father was gone
It was, I recall, in the form of a scroll
with golden leaf and all
And I found it one day in a drawer of old
photographs hidden away
And my eyes still grow damp to remember
His Majesty signed with his own rubber stamp

It was dark all around
There was frost in the ground
When the tigers broke free
And noone survived from the Royal Fusiliers Company C
They were all left behind
Most of them dead
The rest of them dying
And that’s how the High Command took my Daddy from me