A barbed wire fence separated the front-line trench from no man's land, and men brave or unfortunate enough to go over the top of the dug-out were often quickly shot and their bodies caught in the barbed wire.
This troop song was not popular with officers, who thought it bad for morale, though attempts to suppress it were unsuccessful.
[2] Another variation fourth verse sees C.O replaced with colonel, put at the start and, "He's On another 7 days leave".
The song was covered by death industrial band Maruta Kommand on their 2000 album "Holocaust Rites".
The song is part of the "Great War Trilogy" (The Valley of the Shadow / The Old Barbed Wire / Long, Long Trail) sung by John Roberts and Tony Barrand in their album, A Present from the Gentlemen: A Pandora's Box of English Folk Songs (Golden Hind Music, GHM-101, 1992).
The tune of the song is whistled in the opening of the documentary They Shall Not Grow Old and is listed on the soundtrack by Plan 9 as "If You Want to Find.