The phrase: “Debout Les Morts – The Dead, Get Up!” became the motto of the 3rd Marine Regiment when Adjudant Péricard declared those words to encourage his troops on February 27, 1915, during a bloody battle to recapture a fort. In this battle, the regiment endured 189 killed, 575 wounded and 250 disappeared unaccounted for.
Throughout the 3rd French Marine’s history, they often fought while outnumbered sometimes even 10 to 1. They have lost multitudes of Marines in combat. And several times the regiment was dissolved only to be resurrected a few years later and sent back into the fray. Like our Marine Corps, it seems not even death, could keep them out of the fight.
