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Legionnaires of 2e REI doing PC in downtown Nîmes

Le petit caporal

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Joe, yes the 2 REI chant regiment is in German and is different to the 3 REI (both are called Anna/e Marie)
Early eighties, the Legion was told to pipe down on the german songs (Pdt Mitterand obliged. ..but we didn't, just more discreet about it )
 

Joseph Cosgrove

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Joe, yes the 2 REI chant regiment is in German and is different to the 3 REI (both are called Anna/e Marie)
Early eighties, the Legion was told to pipe down on the german songs (Pdt Mitterand obliged. ..but we didn't, just more discreet about it )
Quite right, Le petit Cpl, but what I'd like to know is nowadays as Anne Marie of 2 ERI sung in French, official garde à vous one? I believe I read somewhere that a Lt Col translated it into French and some, perhaps Pr Mitterand ordered that all legion songs should be sung in Franch on mainland France.

Sexpert, I believe that there is already a legion song sung in Russian, A Cossack song if I remember correctly.
 
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Quite right, Le petit Cpl, but what I'd like to know is nowadays as Anne Marie of 2 ERI sung in French, official garde à vous one? I believe I read somewhere that a Lt Col translated it into French and some, perhaps Pr Mitterand ordered that all legion songs should be sung in Franch on mainland France.

Sexpert, I believe that there is already a legion song sung in Russian, A Cossack song if I remember correctly.
Yes I seem to remember reading somewhere that in the old days of the Legion russians left their Mark to..so to speak.
 

Rapace

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(...) Th Quelle numéro you hear has always been sung for as long as I can remember and it is Portugese. .uno dos tres. .zerba. . (Zerba means tree go figure). (...)
It's not zerba (which, by the way, means nothing in Portuguese), it's selva (forest). This running cadence comes from the Brazilian army and their jungle warfare training center. The leader starts shouting e-nu-me-ra... And the troop counts: uno-dois-três-quatro (or in French un-deux-trois-quatre). This enumeration is done more and more rapidly, first every fourth step, then every second step, then every step and ends up with the shout selva!!
 

Joseph Cosgrove

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It's not zerba (which, by the way, means nothing in Portuguese), it's selva (forest). This running cadence comes from the Brazilian army and their jungle warfare training center. The leader starts shouting e-nu-me-ra... And the troop counts: uno-dois-três-quatro (or in French un-deux-trois-quatre). This enumeration is done more and more rapidly, first every fourth step, then every second step, then every step and ends up with the shout selva!!
That sounds about right to me Rapace. I remember Adj Silvas (our Chef de section, an Italian) at La Jasse telling the Caporal d'encadrement (a Portuguese), on a Saturday afternoon, to take us on the football pitch and teach it us. Not great for moral as everyone was hoping to have the afternoon to clean kit.
 

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Looks great but sounds very American... or do they sing These type of Songs in the Legion?

Agreed; it's definitely an American tune, though for us it was always a marching song, not a running cadence. Threw me for a loop hearing Legionnaires singing it. I knew that the Legion has adapted a few old German tunes, but I was pleasantly surprised to see they've possibly borrowed one of ours, even if it may have come second-hand via a Brit.

As for the purpose of singing while running, Rapace; two reasons: It was a motivational/morale thing, usually reserved for unit runs of company level or higher (also during basic training). The other supposed benefit was training your guys to exhale correctly, though I have my doubts about how useful that really was. Naturally, you couldn't call cadence (sing) if the pace were too fast or the distance too long, so if we were going for speed or stamina, we didn't sing.
 

mammikoura

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So as far as I've been informed, this was done on the morning after France won the World Cup. Some might say it was a form of celebration but the version I heard was more about waking up all the Frenchies who stayed up partying all night long. :D
And Joseph, regarding Anne-Marie, at least until 2013, the one in 2e REI was always sung in German. Can't confirm after that but I don't see why they would have changed it.
 
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Never had cadences or running songs. Just sang dirty songs in the back of the 3 Tonner. NCOs' told us to desist when going through a town or village. Strange I can remember them now. I must have a dirty mind or a retentive memory despite my senior moments.:unsure:
 

kkillert0fu

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Without the accompanying video, anybody would assume this is the American military. My guess is that someone of a higher rank in that particular regiment is an American, and obviously brought his influence to the Legion.
 

Le petit caporal

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No, it was first sung in the mid eighties by the first company of 2 REI and an English ex Royal Marine taught us the words (it is American, for sure). Very few high ranking French officiers have not done at least one posting in the Anglo American armies, thru exchange courses.
 
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Are there many non-French officers in the Legion in the last decades? I have heard that after the disbandment of the 1er REP, it became quite difficult for a foreigner to get above the rank of adjutant-chef.
 

Le petit caporal

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There are more and more. I know one Polish that is less than 30 and already a lieutenant. Was he ever a simple legionnaire..?
 
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Thank you LPCaporal, maybe things have changed , many decades have passed since the Algerian war ended. Can you "jump" ranks in the Legion through some exams/selection, i.e. go, for example from Sergeant to 1st Lt without having to run through the adjutant ranks?
 

Le petit caporal

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Yes, I believe so. Knew some one who went from Adj. to Lt. skipping Adj -hef but as low as Sgt....or directly as a new foreign recruit straight in as officier, i am beginning to wonder.
If only i had joined 15 minutes later !
 

Rapace

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Going directly from “Militaire du rang” (i.e. any rank up to and including caporal-chef) to officer is not possible. Going from sergent (the lowest NCO rank in the French military) to officer is possible, if you pass a selective exam and get admitted in the military officer academy called École Militaire Interarmes (EMIA), which is different from the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr (ESM), the Sandhurst or West Point equivalent, located on the same campus in Brittany. After two years in the EMIA, a sergeant will be promoted to Lt. This is for the regular army. Not sure however if a sergent in the Legion can take such exam to enter the EMIA (in particular if he's still serving under his Legion Id or if, even if he's serving under his real Id, he hasn't received French citizenship).
 

Rapace

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I'm planning to take the fut-fut course! o_O
The so-called “fut-fut” course will not make you an officer, but only a so-called caporal d'encadrement. This means that, after your 4 months of basic training, you'll stay at Castelnaudary, follow the stage caporal (corporal's course) and serve for a while as part of the cadre training the new recruits (under the authority of an NCO).
 

kkillert0fu

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The so-called “fut-fut” course will not make you an officer, but only a so-called caporal d'encadrement. This means that, after your 4 months of basic training, you'll stay at Castelnaudary, follow the stage caporal(corporal's course) and serve for a while as part of the cadre training the new recruits (under the authority of an NCO). .
Ah... I thought it was a fast track to sergeant or something... And that if I played enough Call of Duty and showed them proof of how good I was that I could get it.
 
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