U.S. nurses and non-combatants remembered at WW1 cemetery

Record ID: 1363522

  • Title: U.S. nurses and non-combatants remembered at WW1 cemetery
  • Date: 31st October 2018
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (OCTOBER 24, 2018) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) GUIDE AT THE SURESNES AMERICAN CEMETERY, SANDRINE DEBOTÉ, SAYING: "Dorothy and Gladys joined the Red Cross for six months then they came to the Eastern part of France on the battle field and they stayed there for a year and a half, something like 18 months and they saw horrors, people killed and injured and they were writing letters to their young brother who was in American telling of all the horrors. After a year and a half their family said, 'Come girls we want you back'. So they say: 'Okay we will return home'. So they went down to Bordeaux to take the boat, because they had to take a boat to go back to America and once on the boat they decided to jump. They said in a letter to their family before jumping that life would never be the same for them - they would never see any beauty because of all the horrors they saw." VARIOUS OF CEMETERY GARDENERS PLANTING FLOWERS GILDER ABOUT TO POLISH RAILINGS IN CEMETERY GILDER PREPARING GOLD LEAF GILDER APPLYING GOLD LEAF ON RAILINGS VARIOUS OF HEADSTONES IN CEMETERY HEADSTONE WITH FRENCH AND AMERICAN FLAGS
  • Embargoed: 14th November 2018 15:36
  • Keywords: WW1 World War One centenary U.S. soldiers Suresnes cemetery
  • Location: SURESNES, FRANCE AND UNKNOWN LOCATION
  • City: SURESNES, FRANCE AND UNKNOWN LOCATION
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Military Conflicts
  • Reuters ID: LVA00694F48QV
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A RE-FILE OF A PREVIEW STORY FOR THE WORLD WAR ONE CENTENARY WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY FILED ON NOVEMBER 1
    American Nurses and non-combatants who served alongside soldiers fighting on the frontlines during World War One are remembered among the soldiers buried in Suresnes American Cemetery, which French media report will be visited by U.S. President Donald Trump during centenary celebrations this weekend.
    The cemetery sitting on top of the hillside, looking out onto the Parisian landscape, makes a peaceful resting place for the more than 1,500 US causalities buried in the cemetery as well as 20 unidentified World War One soldiers.
    The cemetery's chapel also bears the names of 1,000 other Americans whose final resting places are unknown.
    The first world war was largely fought on Northern French and Belgian soil, the bulk of the bloody conflict taking place in trenches dug into the countryside along the borders of France, Germany and Belgium, sometimes only a few meters apart, leaving physical traces that still scare the landscape.
    More than 10 million died in the conflict which came to an end on November 11, 1918 of which 116, 516 were Americans.
    Despite the armed conflict taking heavy casualties, diseases running rife among battalions took higher numbers of lives among American troops as well as the non-combatants who played vital roles on the front lines.
    Most notably, Spanish Influenza claimed the lives of 63,114 Americans compared to 53,402 killed in combat.
    Among those non - military personal buried at Suresnes was leader of the Hello Girls - the colloquial name for the female switchboard operators of the U.S. Telephone Corps in France, Inez Crittenden - who died of Spanish flu in Paris on November 11, 1918 - the day the armistice agreement was signed bringing the war to an end.
    Two sisters, Gladys and Dorothy K. Cromwell, who served as nurses in France during the war are also buried at the cemetery.
    According to cemetery guide, Sandrine Deboté, the two sisters cared for soldiers on the front line in Eastern France for about 18 months before being called back to American by their family, but just after they boarded the ship for their return journey, they decided to commit suicide by jumping off ship, as due to horrors they had witnessed, their lives would not be the same again.
    The cemetery was bringing a few last touches before it marked the 100th anniversary of the Armistice on November 11.
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