The song sets up the story premise for
The Wall film, set over footage recreating the British contribution to
Operation Shingle, where American and British troops landed on the beaches near
Anzio, Italy, with the goal of liberating
Rome from
Nazi German control. These forces included Z Company of the 8th Battalion,
Royal Fusiliers, in which Waters' father Eric served. 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 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" as the German assault inflicted heavy losses 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
George VI 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
social isolation throughout the story of
The Wall, especially in the film version. On 18 February 2014, 70 years to the day after his father was killed at Anzio, Waters unveiled a memorial to the 8th Battalion, and his father, near to the site of the battle. Another monument had already been erected at the approximate spot where his father fell. After many years of not knowing the details of what happened on that fateful day, Waters was finally able to get some closure after 93-year-old Fusilier and Anzio veteran Harry Shindler uncovered precise details of the time and place of Waters' father's death. Both of them were present at the unveiling of the memorial. Waters has indicated that his father was originally a
conscientious objector during the outbreak of the
Second World War. However, as the German expansion grew, Waters' father felt compelled to join the
British Armed Forces. Waters goes on to say, "So he went back to the conscription board in
London and told them he had changed his mind. He was commissioned as a
second lieutenant in the Royal Fusiliers, which is how he ended up here 70 years ago. He believed he was involved in a necessary fight against the Nazis, and for that he paid the ultimate price." == Subsequent releases ==