From: Peter Sinclair (Peter@LIMEDENE.DEMON.CO.UK)
Date: Sat Apr 10 1999 - 16:07:50 PDT
I am 99pct certain that <Lili Marlene> was first sung by the 8th Army in Tripoli after defeating the Germans. Amongst the "booty" of the 8th army tank regiments was the original German version of <Lili Marlene> which was the precursor of "our" version. Another famous WWII song was <Where have all the flowers gone........? made very popular by Marlene Dietrich, a very famous German actress and singer who emigrated to the USA immediately before the war because she could not stomach Hitler. Unfortunately I cannot recall the full text. It had a beautiful and haunting melody. Regards=Peter S. ] . On Sun, 11 Apr 1999 04:53:29 +1000, you wrote: >Ron, > >Thanks for your message of 9 Apr 1999: >>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. > >I never realised that it went back as far as WWI! We live and learn. >Your having used the words, "...carried on into WWII..." jogged my >memory. The 'Carrier' I inherited in Normandy had the name LILI MARLENE >painted across the near side (left side). Carriers (which were miniature >3-man open-top 'tanks' you could say) were, in our mob, mainly occupied >by veterans from the Desert war of 1941-42, which is why I used the term >'inherited' - the original occupants having been wounded or having moved >on to a 'far, far better place', I imagine. > >Tim