Attack of French army initially — anxieties to be ignored (4,2,4,4)
I believe the answer is:
fall on deaf ears
'be ignored' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'attack of french army initially anxieties' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'of' could be 'o' and 'o' is located in the answer.
'french' could be 'f' (abbreviation) and 'f' is present in the answer.
'anxieties' could be 'fears' (fear is a kind of anxiety) and 'fears' is found within the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'to' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for fall on deaf ears that I've seen is " totally ignored".)