Hanging on the Old Barbed Wire

"Hanging on the Old Barbed Wire" (Roud 9618) is a war song of World War I. The song sarcastically recounts the location of various army members, not to be found in the combat zone, and concludes by describing the location of the old battalion: "hanging on the old barbed wire". 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 the officer class, who thought it bad for morale, though attempts to suppress it were unsuccessful.

There are several different versions of this song, though all share the final two lines. One version:

A variant last line is "if you want to find the privates".

Another variation 4th verse sees C.O replaced with colonel, put at the start and,"He's on another 7 days leave"

The song was included on the 1988 album English Rebel Songs 1381–1984 by the English anarchist punk band Chumbawamba, as well as on their 2003 re-recording of the same album.

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