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CM:AK title music


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Hey, that 6th Panzergrenadier version isn't half bad. I prefer the German version anyway, more authentic since it was a German song originally.

That or Prokofievs "Dance of the Knights", wich is suitably grandiose and the title alone captures so many apects of the North Africa campaign. The "chivalrous" nature of the campaign for instance.

"D-Day dodgers" while nice enough is only suitable for Italy while the main theme seems to be North Africa.

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Well I did like the 6th Panzergrenadiers but still think the original Lilli Marlene with Dietrich would be best. A good compromise might be a descent instrumental version.

I spoke to my 83 year old uncle-in-law who was a fitter in NA and not only did he state several songs to include Lilli Marlene but also several American swing tunes. However he did say that the broadcast from Belgrade often caused artillery in both German and Brits camps to shut down (he said the italians didn't seem to like the song and would continue to bang along) - the British would reply to that by hitting them during their dinner time.

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Originally posted by Rex Bellator:

Gaaaak! That instrumental is terrible, sounds like my old Dad deciding to attack the family keyboard after half a sherry.

I was thinking something along the lines of the 6th Panzergrenadier version here.

Either that or a better instrumental version if there is one.

Yeah... much better.. I'd vote for that version..

Cordialement, Duke of Earl

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Probably I will get a lot of stick for this one, but I just had to add this one:

Bagpipes.

Now maybe it's the fact that I have Scotsmen polluting the family bloodline way back in the 1600s :D but this Dutchy finds them very stirring. And those Highlanders advancing through open desert with pipes in the lead is one of those imagines wich come to my mind when talking about warfare in North Africa.

[ April 08, 2003, 08:14 PM: Message edited by: Tweety ]

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Originally posted by Tweety:

Probably I will get a lot of stick for this one, but I just had to add this one:

Bagpipes.

Now maybe it's the fact that I have Scotsmen polluting the family bloodline way back in the 1600s :D but this Dutchy finds them very stirring. And those Highlanders advancing through open desert with pipes in the lead is one of those imagines wich come to my mind when talking about warfare in North Africa.

I'd be interested in knowing how often that actually happened - in action, I mean. I've seen pictures of the Gordons coming into Tripoli, etc., but have only seen passing reference to it being done in action in North Africa, in Whiting's "PBI" and referring to Alamein.

Officially, the playing of bagpipes in action was prohibited, as was the wearing of the kilt. Despite the prohibition, some units wore the kilt in France in 1940, and no doubt pipers plied their trade. I'd be grateful to any solid references about pipers in action.

The Calgary Highlanders went up Hill 67 in Normandy behind their pipers, but that was the only time (it was their first battle, incidentally).

As for Lili Marlene - I've heard of it being done on the pipes, but have never heard it myself. I can play Deutschland uber Alles on the Highland pipes. Got yelled at by the Pipe Sergeant one Rememberance Day for doing it, too. :D

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Originally posted by Hans:

Well I did like the 6th Panzergrenadiers but still think the original Lilli Marlene with Dietrich would be best.

Dietrich didn't do the original Lilli - she covered it in both English and German.

The original was a German poem from WW1 written by Hans Leip, a soldier, put to music by Norbert Schultze in 1938, and recorded by Lale Anderson in 1939. However nothing much happened to it until it was broadcast in 1941 to the DAK, and was quite popular with German soldiers in WW2 - it was their singing and humming it that caught the attention of hte British in the desert, even in German.

American soldiers also apparently liked it in German but only when sung by the rather gorgeous German born Dietrich.

Dietrich's version had been a surprise hit with the English and her English recording was apparently rather hurried.

IMO it'd be nice if a copy of the original could be used rather than Dietrich's - it was hte DAK that MADE this song, and it was truly international in its appeal.

Last Saturday it was featured on a local radio programme, which sparked my interest! smile.gif

[ April 09, 2003, 03:29 AM: Message edited by: Stalin's Organ ]

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  • 5 months later...

The 6th Panzergrenadier's version of Lili Marlene gets my vote. Not only historical, but very stirring.

I always enjoy tunes sung by the armed forces accompanied by military bands.

(On a side note, can anyone direct me to a site that has similar samples from the French military? I heard one airborne company singing a song on Bastille Day and I will only recognize it as the one I am looking for if I hear it.)

Thanks,

-Brian

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While I like the Lili Marlene idea quite a bit I could see that being used for the victory screen music, i.e. Axis win you get to hear it in German, Allies win you get to hear it in English!

For the intro music I would like to make the following suggestions;

1) 'Lawernce of Arabia. Yes, I know it is the wrong war but using that logic would have excluded Wagner from CMBB as well ;)

2) Ethnic North African music, much to choose from here!!!

3) Carl Orff, Carmina Burana (1937). maybe overused but it has similar power to Wagner's Flight of the Valkyrie' in CMBB!

-e

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Originally posted by Sailor Malan:

I think that CMAK needs a stirring military quick march: how's about 'Heigh Ho' (from Snow White)? The British Army used it as a quick march (honest, it was the quick march for REME in the early 50's, because my Dad joined then, and he had to march to it!)

{REME = Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers)

But REME itself didn't exist until after the war in North Africa was over...or at least the Canadian version, RCEME (Wreck Me!) was constituted as an official corps in February 1944.
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