A Great Bit Of History Trivia For You All (France/Military)

[Saving Hawaii]

La Marseillaise has long been the French National Anthem. It was originally written though as a fighting song, which is fairly evident given its vividly brutal lyrics. It was written to be screamed by men charging into battle at the top of their lungs. But that only happened once.

When and where was La Marseillaise sung as soldiers marched into battle and why was it sung?

(Please don't use Google to cheat, and if you do please don't post the answer here)

[Saving Hawaii]

1. Here's the answer... jk.

But I'm saving this space at the top of the thread to post it once somebody nails the answer.

[ellisonz]

2. French Revolution...

...but I couldn't tell you exactly, when, where and why.

[Saving Hawaii]

3. Nope.

I'll drop a hint I guess.

The people who sang it weren't French.

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

6. Something to do with French colonies like Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia??? n/t

[Saving Hawaii]

8. Wrong continent but closer.

[RZM]

4. I think Ellison is partly correct

I believe it originated in the foreign wars that broke out during the revolution (and largely because of the revolution). Who sang it I don't know, but seeing as those wars were kind of the birth of modern French patriotism and the song later became the national anthem, that's my guess.

[ellisonz]

15. Yeah after further review...

I'm inclined to think the wikipedia account is correct, and that the song, although perhaps not the title are French Revolution.

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

5. Allons enfants de la patrie

Le jour de gloire est arrive

War of 1812????

[Denninmi]

7. I seem to have some vague memory from high school or college French studies...

That it originally didn't have any connection to Marseilles, which is on the Med. south coast of France. Had something to do with the Alsace-Lorraine region in the NE corner, or was written there or something.

And, I am positive that the original timeframe was during the French Revolution.

Beyond that, I don't recall. Such a fount of knowledge am I.

[Saving Hawaii]

9. The name comes from Marseille. It got renamed because some troops from Marseille were singing it as

a marching anthem during the French Revolution. That really doesn't get us to the soldiers singing this as they were going into battle though. Like I said, that's only recorded to have happened once.

[LanternWaste]

10. I'm guessing near the very end of the Napoleonic Wars...?

I'm guessing near the very end of the Napoleonic Wars, the last standing battle prior to Pappy Nappy getting booted to Elba (forget the name of the town....)?

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

11. So?

What is the answer?

[Saving Hawaii]

12. Alright, alright.

It was sung by Vietnamese paratroopers at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu during the First Indochina War. The French paratroopers fighting at that battle sung French paratrooper songs as they normally would, but the handful of battalions of Vietnamese paratroopers that had been raised just prior to the battle had no songs to sing. So they sang the only song that everybody present actually knew, La Marseillaise, which they'd been taught in the colonial schools.

[applegrove]

13. Every July 14 at the cottage, after a few too many glasses of wine, an aunt from France

would belt out that song. She was hilarious!

.............. There is your 'when' and 'why'. What do I win?

[Tikki]

14. A the dedication to the Statue of Liberty or the Eiffel Tower or the Arc de' Triomphe?

I gon't know.


Tikki