A battle cry or war cry is a yell or chant taken up in battle, usually by members of the same combatant group.
Battle cries are not necessarily articulate (e.g. "Eulaliaaaa!", "Alala"..), although they often aim to invoke patriotic or religious sentiment. Their purpose is twofold, both arousing aggression and esprit de corps on one's own side and causing intimidation on the hostile side. Battle cries are a universal form of display behaviour (i.e., threat display) aiming at competitive advantage, ideally by overstating one's own aggressive potential to a point where the enemy prefers to avoid confrontation altogether and opts to flee. In order to overstate one's potential for aggression, battle cries need to be as loud as possible, and have historically often been amplified by acoustic devices such as horns, drums, conches, carnyxes, bagpipes, bugles, etc. (see also martial music).
Battle cries are closely related to other behavioral patterns of human aggression, such as war dances and taunting, performed during the "warming up" phase preceding the escalation of physical violence. From the Middle Ages, many cries appeared on speech scrolls in standards or coat of arms as slogans (see slogan (heraldry)) and were adopted as mottoes, an example being the motto "Dieu et mon droit" ("God and my right") of the English kings. It is said that this was Edward III's rallying cry during the Battle of Crécy. The word "slogan" originally derives from sluagh-gairm or sluagh-ghairm (sluagh = "people", "army", and gairm = "call", "proclamation"), the Scottish Gaelic word for "gathering-cry" and in times of war for "battle-cry". The Gaelic word was borrowed into English as slughorn, sluggorne, "slogum", and slogan.
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History
Antiquity
The war cry is an aspect of epic battle in Homer: in the Iliad, Diomedes is conventionally called "Diomedes of the loud war cry." Hellenes and Akkadians alike uttered the onomatopoeic cry "alala" in battle.
The troops of ancient Athens, during the Medic Wars and the Peloponnesian War were noted for going into battle shouting "Alala!" or "Alale!", which was supposed to emulate the cry of the owl, the bird of their patron goddess Athena.
Eleleu (ἐλελεῦ) was an ancient Greek war cry. The Suda states that people going into battle shouted ἐλελεῦ together with a rhythmic movement. As an example, it quotes Achaeus of Eretria's Philoctetes, where Agamemnon orders the Achaeans to take up their swords and sound the trumpet before crying, "ἐλελεῦ!"
The Western Huns attacked with terrifying battle cries.
One of the common Hindu war cries was "Hara Hara Mahadeva" meaning, "Hail to Mahadeva!" (Shiva).
Another common war cry in India was "Jai Bhavani" meaning, "Hail goddess Bhavani!”
A common war cry used in ancient Tamilakam was "Vetrivel, Veeravel", meaning, "Victorious vel, courageous vel." Vel is the spear of Murugan, the regional form of Kartikeya, the Hindu war deity. In the contemporary period, the battle cry "Vetrivel, Veeravel" is being used in the 191 Field Regiment of the Indian Army based in Madukkarai, Coimbatore.
Middle Ages
During the Scottish wars of independence, Scottish soldiers used Alba gu bràth as a battle-cry, a phrase that means 'Scotland for ever' (literally, 'Scotland until judgement'.) This was depicted in the film Braveheart during which Mel Gibson, playing William Wallace, shouts the phrase to rally his soldiers just before a battle commenced.
Each Turkic tribe and tribal union had its distinct tamga (seal), totemic ongon bird, and distinct uran (battle cry) (hence the Slavic urah "battle cry"). While tamgas and ongons could be distinct down to individuals, the hue of horses and uran battle cries belonged to each tribe, were passed down from generation to generation, and some modern battle cries were recorded in antiquity. On split of the tribe, their unique distinction passed to a new political entity, endowing different modern states with the same uran battle cries of the split tribes, for example Kipchak battle cry among Kazakhs, Kyrgyzs, Turkmens, and Uzbeks. Some larger tribes' uran battle cries:
Kipchak – "ay-bas" ("lunar head").
Kangly (Kangars) – "bai-terek" ("sacred tree").
Oguzes – "teke" ("mount")
Desperta ferro! ("Awake iron!" in Catalan) was the most characteristic cry of the Almogavar warriors during the Crown of Aragon military campaigns across the Mediterranean from the 12th through to the 14th centuries.
Deus vult! ("God wills it!" in Latin) was the battle cry of the Crusaders.
Montjoie Saint Denis!: battle cry of the Kings of France since the 12th century.
Santiago y cierra, España! was a war cry of Spanish troops during the Reconquista, and of the Spanish Empire.
On 14 August 1431, the whole Army of the Holy Roman Empire (of the 4th anti-Hussite crusade) was defeated by the Hussites in the Battle of Domažlice. Attacking imperial units started to retreat after hearing Ktož jsú boží bojovníci ("Ye Who Are Warriors of God") choral and were annihilated shortly after.
Pre-modern
During the Sengoku period, "Ei ei ō!" (えいえいおう) was used by generals to boost morals of their soldiers before battle as a form of war cry.
When suppressing peasants' rebellions in Germany and Scandinavia around 1500, such as in the Battle of Hemmingstedt, the Dutch mercenaries of the Black Guard yelled Wahr di buer, die garde kumt ("Beware, peasants, the guards are coming"). When the peasants counterattacked, they responded with Wahr di, Garr, de Buer de kumt ("Beware, Guard, of the peasant, [who is] coming").
The Spanish cried Santiago ("Saint James") both when reconquering Spain from the Moors and during conquest in early colonial America.
Polish "Winged Hussars" used to shout Jezus Maria ("Jesus, Mary") or Matka Boska ("Mother of God") during their charges.
King Henry IV of France (1553–1610), a pleasure-loving and cynical military leader, was famed for wearing a striking white plume in his helmet and for his war cry: Ralliez-vous à mon panache blanc! ("Follow my white plume!").
Burmese soldiers of the Konbaung Dynasty under Alaungpaya were recorded to shout Shwebo-Thar (Sons of Shwebo) during the Konbaung-Hanthawady War.
Most of the jaikaras were popularized by Guru Gobind Singh. The Sikhs have a number of battle cries or jaikara: the most popular ones are as follows:
Bolnaji (Respectfully Utter) – Waheguru (Wondrous Enlightener)
Deg Teg Fateh (Victory to Charity and Arms) – Birdh ki Paij Panth ki jit (Rout of the Enemy Victory of the Sikh Path)
Bole So Nihal...Sat Sri Akaal ("Shout Aloud in Ecstasy... True is the Great Timeless One"),
Modern
During World War II, Tennōheika Banzai (天皇陛下万歳, May the Emperor live for ten thousand years) served as a battle cry of sorts for Japanese soldiers, particularly in a "banzai charge". The most popular battle cry is "Ei ei oh" (エイエイオー), which is usually used at the start of battle.
"Avanti Savoia!" (English: Go Savoy!) was the patriotic battle cry of the Italian Royal Army during World War I and to a lesser extent, World War II. Infantrymen would scream this motto when launching an offensive attack, namely against the Austro-Hungarians.
During the Greco-Italian War (in WWII), the Greeks would shout "Αέρα!" (wind) as their battle cry.
During the Korean War, the Korean People's Army used the phrase "김일성 수령님 만세" (transliterated gim-ilseong sulyeongnim manse, translated as "Long live the Great Leader Kim Il Sung").
"Hooah" is the war cry of the United States Army, the United States Air Force, and the United States Space Force. "Oorah" is the war cry used by United States Marine Corps. "Hooyah" is the war cry of the United States Navy and the United States Coast Guard.
The Slavic version, "Ura!" has been used by the Imperial Russian Army, the Red Army, Russian Ground Forces, alongside many more Eastern European armed forces. It was also used by Yugoslav Partisans as Juriš/Јуриш.
"Merdeka atau mati!" (English: Freedom or death!) Used by Indonesian national army and freedom fighters (Indonesian: Pedjoeang/pejuang) during the Indonesian National Revolution.
In Afghanistan, Norwegian troops of the Telemark Battalion would sometimes use the battle cry "Til Valhall!" (To Valhalla!) followed by Oorah.
Mujahideen and jihadists in the Middle East and North Africa shout "Allahu Akbar" (God is the Greatest).
In Literature
In Brian Jacques's Redwall series, the hares of the Long Patrol have the warcry "Eulalia!"