On  the DVD commentary, Waters purports that "in some generation you break the cycle  for some people." Waters' comments are a perfect foundation for the second part  of "When the Tigers Broke Free," a song that serves as both Waters' and Pink's  most emotional lament for the loss of a father. Unfortunately for Pink, Waters'  comments about the cycle being broken are far from true at this point in the album.  Chronologically speaking, young Pink is still erecting his wall brick by brick  when he finds a drawer full of war memorabilia containing his father's death certificate  sent by "kind old King George." Interestingly, the song's point of view is a departure  from that of previous songs, written as a sort of present recollection of past  events. Although the events of the song are in the past, it is being told from  a present and almost omniscient (i.e. Godlike) point of view, taking into account  the third person description of the battle that took Pink's father's life as recounted  in the "Tigers, part 1" and a few verses in this second half. Such conflation  between the first person personal point of view and the narrator-like third person  illustrates just how much of Waters story and personality are tied up with Pink.  The creator, while writing a story from the viewpoint of his character, just can't  help but slip in his own point of view and experiences. Such an idea is further  supported by Waters' real recollections of finding his father's death scroll in  a drawer along with a collection of other war memorabilia such as service pistols  and ammunition. Accordingly, the emotion of this song is perhaps the most pure  of any song on the album in that it stems directly from the creator's own psyche.  Whereas other songs mix true events with fiction or combine the lives of a few  people into one story, "When the Tigers Broke Free" is an unadultered account  of Water's childhood and his father's death, making it, at least for me, the most  haunting song on the record…even if it wasn't on the original album!
As  with the first "Tigers," there is little need for a symbolic discussion of the  song's lyrics being that they are fairly straightforward. Young Pink finds a scroll  sent by the British government announcing his father's death, sparking the conclusion  of the war story begun in the "Tigers, part 1." The most interesting aspects about  this second part, as with the first, are the subtle connotations in the lyrics  that give a bit of emotional insight into the narrator's mind.  With the first part, words like "miserable" and "ordinary" belie the narrator's  seemingly detached point of view, hinting at the cynicism and grief behind the  composed voice. The second part is no different though perhaps much more effective  in that the narrator is finally given an identity and the grief hinted at in the  first part is fully and painfully evident towards the end of the song. The narrator's  pain builds as he recalls finding physical proof of his father's death and is  conceivably compounded by the fact that his father's death was nothing more than  routine for the English government. The honor inherent in the scroll form and  gold leaf is tainted by the king's signature in the form of a rubber stamp, implying  that the father's life and the lives destroyed by the war are merely inconsequential  and replaceable components of the factory-like workings of the English government.  Not only did the King not sign the death certificate of one who gave his life  for the crown but also some lesser government employee, another cog in the great  metaphorical machine of politics, most likely stamped the king's insignia on the  scroll. As a result, there is little wonder why Pink vehemently attacks the High  Command for taking "my daddy from me," a feeling of personal betrayal by the social  systems that resurfaces later in the album in songs like "Another Brick in the  Wall, Part 2" and "Mother." The accusations of governmental betrayal continue  when Pink recounts that "they [the soldiers] were all left behind," either dead  or dying after the Tigers (the German war tanks) attacked the Anzio bridgehead.  Although it's most likely improbable that the British government candidly betrayed  its own forces, it is certainly reasonable for Pink to feel such 
overwhelming  bitterness towards the government for sending his father to death and subsequently  treating that death as simply another statistic.
Another interesting lyrical  aspect in the song is the apparent allusions, whether intentional or not, to the  imagery in previous songs and the larger themes of the album. Pink finds the scroll  in "a drawer of old photographs, hidden away," a lyric reminiscent of the memory  of Pink's father as "a snapshot in the family album" from "Another Brick in the  Wall, Part 1." Ideas of the subconscious and repression are immediately recalled  with the "old photographs" symbolically representing the memories hidden and forgotten  in the "drawer" of one's mind. In other words, Pink's discovery of the scroll  symbolizes the repressed emotions and memories that must eventually resurface,  spawning the emotional outburst in the latter part of "Tigers, Part 2." As mentioned  before, this cycle of repression, remembering, and emotional outburst is found  throughout the album with "Tigers" acting as an example of just how early these  cycles start. Another possible allusion is the "frost in the ground" during the  Anzio battle, recalling the images of frozenness and sterility from "the Thin  Ice." As with this previous song, the frost in "Tigers" reminds the viewer of  the futility and fragility of Life, the burdens placed on us all (in this case,  the burden of war), and every man's eventual demise.
There  is little narrative development during the movie scenes for this song although  the emotional impact is immense. True to the song's narrative, Young Pink (now  around the age of 12 - 13) comes home from school and finds his father's death  certificate in the bottom drawer of a dresser in his mother's room. Along with  the scroll he finds a shaving razor, a very male symbol, Waters muses on the DVD,  and one that is missing from his life, as well as a box of bullets. Beneath it  all he finds his father's military uniform, which he puts on in front of the mirrors  of his mother's bureau. The following shots are equally haunting and powerful,  cutting between shots of Young Pink and his father in the same outfit. These shots  further illustrate Waters' ideas of cycles with the young taking the place (and  the burdens) of the old. Pink's father wears the uniform of his country and takes  on the burden of the war being waged. Pink wears the uniform of his father and  takes on both the burden of losing that very same father as well as the effects  the war has had on the country and the world. In a strict metaphorical sense,  the father is Pink's doppelganger (and vice versa), acting as the ghostly double  of Pink. In other words, Pink and his father are mirror images of each other,  fighting a war neither asked for (whether real or metaphorical) and carrying the  burdens of the previous generation. This idea of the doubled self is further compounded  by the fact that the viewer sees the subjects (Pink / Father) through the mirrors  of the bedroom bureau rather than by actually looking at the  subjects themselves. It's also interesting to note that the shots of Pink's father  are mainly stationary while the shots of Pink in the uniform pan his image in  the side and main mirrors of the bureau, hinting at Pink's more fractured identity.  Perhaps this is a result of the looking at himself through his mother's mirror.  Symbolically, mirrors represent anything from the true self, the way one views  oneself, or the way one wants others to view one. The mirror images of Pink reveal  all of the above, revealing Pink as he is (the young boy beneath the uniform),  Pink as the metaphorical extension of his father (Pink in uniform), and the way  Pink's mother views Pink as both child and vessel for her feelings over the loss  of her husband (Pink in uniform as reflected in mother's mirror). Each separate  mirror image is another fracture in Pink's persona, another brick in his ever-growing  wall accounting for the split of his identity later in the album and movie.