When The Tigers Broke Free

       C                    G#                C
It was just before dawn one miserable morning in black forty-four
C
When the foreward commander was told to sit tight,
                         F/C        C
When they asked that his men be withdrawn
C
And the generals gave thanks, as the other ranks
G#                 C
Held back the enemy tanks for a while
        C                    G#
And the Anzio Bridgehead was held for the price
     C
Of a few hundred ordinary lives
C                 G                    C                       G
And kind old King George sent Mother a note when
he heard that Father was gone
C           G                      C
It was, I recall, in the form of a scroll with gold leaf and all
C
And I found it one day in a drawer of old photographs hidden away
C                                G#
And my eyes still grow damp to remember
            C
His Majesty signed with his own rubber stamp
C                G                             C
It was dark all around, there was frost on the ground
                      G
When the Tigers broke free
C
And no-one survived from the Royal Fusiliers, Company "C"
G                    C                   G                         C
They were all left behind,  most of them dead  -  the rest of them dying
C                  G                    C
And that's how the high command took my daddy from me