Re: WWII songs

From: Ronald Gillen (gillen@NCONNECT.NET)
Date: Fri Apr 09 1999 - 18:12:24 PDT


I remember standing at a DAV post bar in Cleveland
singing this song with DAV convention attendees
in 1950. The veterans were from the North African
Campaign and I was in uniform as a Army National
Guardsman (AAA) attending summer encampment at
Camp Perry, Ohio. It mattered not to them that
I was not regular army as long as I was in an
army uniform. What nostalgia !!!

The three URL's below answer questions and
include Marlene Dietrich singing a verse.

http://home.inreach.com/hancock/lili.html
http://ingeb.org/Lieder/lilimarl.html
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Bungalow/1089/lili.html

Regards ..... Ron Gillen

======================================================

Sinclair Hart wrote:
>
> It is news to me that Lili Marlene may have been sung during WWI. Lala
> Anderson's version touched the hearts of the German soldiers in North
> Africa, and did the same thing for the allies later. I remember the
> heart-rending words and feelings the song evoked when overseas and far
> away from loved ones.  In May of 1945, we were living in captured German
> barracks in Regensburg, guarding General Patton's headquaters at the end
> of WWII. On the plaster walls of the barracks' stairs were words from
> Lili Marlene " Schon rief der posten, Sie bliesen Zapfenstreif. Es kann
> drei tage kosten, cam'rade ich komm ja gleich. Not sure what
> Zapfenstreif was, which the "postebn" was calling. But the warning in
> the next words is "It can cost you three days (presumably in the
> guardhouse), and the answer "I'm coming right away, my friend".  If
> there are those who know German, I hope they will complete the
> translation.
>
> Ronald Gillen wrote:
>
> > Tim Merry wrote:
> > >
> > > ============= snip ==========================================
> > >         "Underneath the lamp-light, by the barrack gate..."
> > >         (title was LILI MARLENE, originally a German song -
> > >         'Unter der Laterne, etc' - which the British 8th Army
> > >          in North Africa seem to have adopted.  I think that's
> > >          the story.)
> > ================= snip ========================================
> >
> > Tim,
> >
> > If my memory serves me correctly LILI MARLENE was a WWI song that
> > carried on into WWII as it was popular with soldiers from both sides
> > sung in both english and german.
> >
> > Regards ..... Ron Gillen


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