Just over a hundred years ago, on November 11, 1918, the armistice marked the end of the First World War. In Saint-Martin, on November 11, Saint-Martin's Day is celebrated. The commemoration of the armistice therefore usually takes place the day before. This year, for the centenary, the ceremony took place at 9 am in front of the community's war memorial. The opportunity to pay tribute to the hairy, who died for France.
The West Indians participated in the First World War. They even had to fight for the right to be conscripted. "Conscription in the" old colonies "(Guadeloupe, Guyana, Martinique, Réunion) has been the subject of repeated requests by deputies since 1878, but it was not until 1912-1913 that military service was effectively set up and rapidly transformed by the first world war.
This demand for conscription is part of a global aspiration for equality ”explains Jacques Dumont in his article Caribbean conscription and citizenship claimed at the turn of the First World War.
Guadeloupeans and inhabitants of the northern islands obtained their conscription in 1913. Of the 10 conscripts listed (men from 000 years), 20 will go to the Great War. 6345 of them will not return, dead for France.
The largest of the troops left in 1915. "The West Indian soldiers are not grouped in the colonial troops but distributed in all the regiments, like the other French" specifies Sarah Epiard, director of the departmental service of the National Office of the veterans and war victims of Guadeloupe and the northern islands. “As many people know Dawdanel song, we tend to think that most of the Guadeloupe soldiers went to the eastern front (Greece, Serbia, Turkey…). In reality, the majority of them were on the Western Front (the Somme, the Marne, the Aisne…) ”she continues.
(More details on www.soualigapost.com)
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