No song that I know expresses the bitterness of troops who were ordered "over the top," only to die by the millions, better than this one. Only those who had experience of the front could have written it. I first heard this song in the film "Oh, What a Lovely War," which used the soldiers' songs to tell the story of the conflict, to devastating

No song that I know expresses the bitterness of troops who were ordered "over the top," only to die by the millions, better than this one. Only those who had experience of the front could have written it. I first heard this song in the film "Oh, What a Lovely War," which used the soldiers' songs to tell the story of the conflict, to devastating effect.