Nous sommes tous des volontaires (We are all volunteers) is the regimental song of the French Foreign Legion’s motherhouse, the 1st Foreign Regiment (1er RE). The song is sung to the tune of “Bombenfliegermarsch der Legion Condor”, a 1939 German march composed and written by Erich Schlecht. It was dedicated to the German pilots of the Legion Condor, a German air force that fought alongside Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s.

The German march was subsequently translated and adapted during WWII, by members of the Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism (Légion des Volontaires Français, LVF). These men, who included a number of former legionnaires, volunteered for the Eastern Front to fight there alongside Germans, against Stalin‘s Soviet Union. At the time, the march was sung under the current title Nous sommes tous des volontaires. The Foreign Legion adopted the march in the late 1940s, when it incorporated some of these French veterans, and retitled Le Premier Etranger (The First Foreign Regiment). Later, the name reverted to the original.

By the way, another march of the Legion Condor adopted by the Foreign Legion is La Légion marche vers le front, the official song of the well-known 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP).

Refrain:
Nous sommes tous des volontaires,
Les gars du 1er Etranger.
Notre devise est légendaire,
Honneur Fidélité-Fidélité,
Marchons Légionnaires,
Dans la boue, dans le sable brûlant,
Marchons l’âme légère
et le coeur vaillant,
Marchons Legionnaires

1.
Nous marchons gaiement en cadence
Malgré le vent, malgré la pluie
Les meilleurs soldats de la France
Sont là devant vous, les voici

2.
Partout où le combat fait rage
L’on voit le Premier Etranger
Exemple d’héroïsme de courage
Se couvrir de glorieux lauriers

3.
Gardons dans le fond de nos âmes
Le souvenir de nos aînés
Et pour la grenade à sept flammes
Loyal, prêt à tout sacrifier

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