ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on visual representation, leitmotif or thematic reference in many songs performed during the war. French national morale during the First World War, the almost unflinching popular consent to and support for the war, becomes an ever more puzzling question as contemporary mentalities become less and less in touch with what patriotism may have meant. If previous generations of heroes were mobilised to give moral support to the war effort, the contribution of all fighting men whatever their generation is also an important dimension of the total mobilisation of the nation. The mobilisation generale applied to those between 18 and 46, so that within a family, men of several generations were affected, while the many volunteers, both younger and older, extended the age range still further. Linked in the chain of generations, they are its future continuation, underlined in the legend by ubiquitous phrases like 'futur soldat'.
