"RF" shields - de Gaulle and dignitaries on dais - planes overhead - crowds - tanks - Mystere fighters- infantry in trucks - crowds -jeep-mounted anti-tank missiles - St. Cyr cadets, Algerian infantry, parachute troops, Foreign Legion march past - Algerian cavalry - pan to planes overhead.




Initials JRG/AHS/V/PB



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: President de Gaulle of France with Prime Minister Debre reviewed the annual July 14 military parade in the Champs Elysee, Paris to mark the fall of the Bastille in 1789.

The 1 1/2-hour parade consisted of 11,000 servicemen - some from units stationed in Germany and Algeria - 238 tanks, 105 aircraft and 58 heavy guns.

Republican Guardsmen escorted the President in his drive by car to the reviewing stand. Aircraft in a fly-past belched smoke trails of red, white and blue.

Then came tanks, armoured cars carrying infantrymen and jeep-borne anti-tank missiles. Colour came in the review of officer cadets of St. Cyr military academy, the French Foreign Legion and Algerian Spanish.