[MRM]

Very nice, Paul. I found the song I was thinking of. It's called When the Tigers Broke Free. Completely unrelated to Pink Floyd I have read about what a monumental screw up Anzio was. If the Allies had attacked in force when they first got there, they would have overrun the Axis and probably ended fighting in that theater in a matter of months at a nominal cost of life. Instead, the Allied High Command dithered until the Germans dug in and reinforced. The war ground on, inch by bloody inch for another year, costing countless lives, both in the Battle of Anzio and in the following campaign for no reason better than the High Comand's stupidity.

I don't agree with Waters' political leanings, but I have a hard time criticizing him for them and I appreciate that they are sincere and firmly held. His feelings are probably not much different than the average grunt's who distrusts all authority higher than he can see, because of their propensity toward getting common people killed.

When The Tigers Broke Free

It was just before dawn
One miserable morning in black 'forty four.
When the forward commander
Was told to sit tight
When he asked that his men be withdrawn.
And the Generals gave thanks
As the other ranks held back
The enemy tanks for a while.
And the Anzio bridgehead
Was held for the price
Of a few hundred ordinary lives.

And 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 gold 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 no one 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.