From a military hospital three army hearses, accompanied by their
formal escorts and preceded by officers, slowly climbed a central
hill toward a cemetery. Three American flags were draped about the
caskets, and several bouquets of flowers supplied by friends of the
dead men were carried by the drivers. As the quiet group moved through
the street, civilians and the military stood uncovered; a platoon of
marching French soldiers brought its guns to attention, and even the
small children removed their head-coverings; the populace had long
since become accustomed to military funerals, but the heart of France
never wearies of honoring the hero dead.
Through the long rows of cross-marked graves the little procession made
its way--by the tricolor of France, the Union Jack, and the crescent
marking the graves of Algerian soldiers who gave their lives for a
cause that had not raised its banner in their own land, but for which
they were glad to die by the side of their brothers who spoke a tongue
that they did not even understand.
When the three open graves were reached, the caskets were placed upon
the supports ready for lowering, and the brief burial service was
begun. Quietly surrounding the graves were first the soldiers and then
the simple peasants of Brittany, who had come to mourn their own dead
and who now remained to honor the memory of those who had journeyed
from the great nation beyond the sea to help fight the battles of
democracy, of civilization, and of their beloved France.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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