It was j

ust before dawn one m

iserable morning  

in black forty-four

When the foreward commander was told to sit tight,

When they asked that his  

men be wi

thdrawn

And the generals gave thanks, as the other ranks

Held back the enem

y tanks for a while

And the  

Anzio Bridgehead 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 re

call, 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 re

member

His Majesty  

signed with his own rubber stamp

It was dark all a

round, there was frost on the  

ground

When the Tigers broke  

free

And no-one survived from the Royal Fusiliers, Company “C”

They were all left be

hind, most of them  

dead – the rest of them  

dying

And that’s how the  

high command took my  

daddy from me