Evening star., 1944-09-18
Correspondents Form
Guard Of Honor for
Dead Maquis Writer
BY KENNETH I. DIXON.

Associated Press War Correspondent.
WITH THE AEF IN FRANCE,
Sept. II Delayed .-Bescanon bur-
led its 40 dead today-2s Maquis
soldiers, 10 civilians and 2 Amer
ican infantrymen-while thousands
stood in the same grim silence which
has characterized such burials all |
over France.
Perhaps We might not have
known about it here at the press
camp except that the ranking Ma
quis victim was 1t. Col. Gustave
Phillip, former French newspaper
man who had pretended to be a |
Vichy officer but really was a leader
of the FIJI. His friends thought it |
would be nice If newsmen were rep
resented at his last rites, so they
came and asked whether the cor
respondents camp could provide a |
guard Of honor.
Capt. John Jack) Senseney, st.
Louis, Mo-, swiftly scraped the camp
and came up with II men. There
were Sergts. Frank A. Lazio, Free
port, N. Y; William S. Hodges,
Merced, Calf, and Tim Pasma,
Rockville, Md. Five were privates
first class-Albert G.. Natalie, As
toria, Long Island; Ray Owens, Bat
tie Creek, Mich; Leonard Woodall,
Livingston, KY; Dennis Cantwell,
Sneedville, Tenn, and William ia
goe, Owensboro, KY. Three were pri-
vates-Homer E. Blake, Fryburg,
Me-; Henry Bernard, Willimantic,
Conn, and Ernest Redfern, Spring
field, Mass.
Joking Starts.
These soldiers never had partici-
pated in such ceremony before
and at first there was the grim, in
evitable CT joking from friends
about how many more dead there
were likely to be after they had
fired the first volley in honor of the
victims. But all this ended long
before they approached the tree
lined courtyard Of St. Joseph's Hos
pital, where the funeral was held in
the open air.
The 40 cofflns were laid out in
two rows. The flag g-draped, flower
laden coffins of the two Yanks were
given places of honor in the forma-
ton of the dead who had fought
the Battle of Bescanon.
In addition to Capt. Senseney'sI
squad, the honor guard included a
squad of Maquis dressed in black
berets, dark green jackets and FIJI
armbandS, a company of gendarmes
and two sections of firemen, wearing
blue uniforms and glistening brass
helmets.
There, amidst thousands of
mourners, the funeral was a solemn,
impressive sight, but not one of
beauty. War bereavement writes
bitter lines in the faces of close
survivors. And the strong, sickening
smell of those who have lain too
long dead on the battlefield soon
made it plain why the services were
held outside and seemed to rob the
fallen soldiers of even the last trace
of human decency due any final
rites.
High Mass Held.
But still the crowd stood frozen
and immobile while the Archbishop
of Bescanon and vicar general held
solemn high requiem mass and a
Protestant pastor preached a ser
mon.
Then Capt. Senseney's squad fired
three volleys over the coff1ns-in
honor of the fallen French and
Americans and in honor of the for
mer newsman who carried his
beliefs in freedom right up in the
face of a German machinegun
which he pointed out to the Yanks.
Twigs and branches clipped by
the volleys still futtered down as
the cofflns were loaded on six horse
drawn wagons decorated with the
flags of the Allies and carried to
three separate churchyards for
burial.
Back at the press camp reporters
and soldiers who had not attended
the funerals took a look at the faces
of the soldiers of Capt. Senseney'sl
squad. Sometimes grim humor is
the essential safety value for the
most shaking situations. but for
some reason no one asked how many
were killed by the vOlleVS