When the Tigers Broke Free

"When the Tigers Broke Free" (also listed as When the Tygers Broke Free) is a Pink Floyd song by Roger Waters, describing the death of his father Eric Fletcher Waters, during World War II's Operation Shingle. The song was written at the same time as The Wall, hence its copyright date of 1979, but not released until the movie version of Pink Floyd's album The Wall and first released as a separate track on a 7" single on July 26, 1982 (running ~2:55), before appearing in The Wall film. The 7" was labelled "From the forthcoming album The Final Cut" but was not included on that album until the 2004 CD reissue.

The song made its first CD appearance in 1990, prior to The Wall Live in Berlin a rare, limited edition promo CD was issued to radio stations (Mercury CSK 2126) which included "When the Tigers Broke Free" and a new version of "Another Brick in the Wall part 2" re-recorded by Roger Waters and the Bleeding Heart Band In 1996 the song became available commercially on the album Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Plays the Music of Pink Floyd. In its original form, it would be released on CD for the first time with a duration of 3:42 on Pink Floyd's 2001 compilation album Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd. After that, the next time the song appeared was on the 2004 re-released, remastered version of The Final Cut, where it rests between "One of the Few" and "The Hero's Return", this time an edited version of 3:16.

The song sets up the story premise for The Wall movie, set over footage recreating the British contribution to the Anzio campaign's Operation Shingle, where Allied forces landed on the beaches near Anzio, Italy with the goal of eventually liberating Rome from German control. These forces included C Company of the Royal Fusiliers, of which Waters' father Eric was a member. As Waters tells it, the forward commander had asked to withdraw his forces from a German Tiger I tank assault, but the generals refused, and "the Anzio bridgehead was held for the price / Of a few hundred ordinary lives" as the Tigers eventually broke through the British defence, killing all of C Company, including Eric Waters.

In the second verse of the song (which makes up the reprise later in The Wall film), Waters describes how he found a letter of condolence from the British government, described as a note from King George in the form of a gold leaf scroll which "His Majesty signed / With his own rubber stamp." Waters' resentment then explodes in the final line "And that's how the High Command took my Daddy from me".

The underlying theme of the song is one of the primary catalysts for the character Pink's descent into isolation and insanity throughout the story of The Wall, especially in the film version.

[edit] Film Version

The first verse is at the opening of the film, where we see Pink's father cleaning and loading a gun. It then goes to "In the Flesh?", showing his fate. The second verse (after "Another Brick in the Wall Part 1") shows Pink finding his father's uniform, bullets, and the letter of condolence.

[edit] Trivia

During the 2nd verse in the film, Pink finds his father's uniform, bullets, and death certificate in a chest of drawers. On the death certificate, Pink's father's name is listed as J. A. Pinkerton. It is assumed that Pink's real name in the film is supposed to be Floyd Pinkerton.

Although the song was written at the same time as The Wall, and is used in the movie, it was not played live in Pink Floyd or Roger Waters' concerts of the album.