The film deals with the contribution of North African soldiers to the Free French Forces during the Second World War and with the discrimination against them.

The "indigènes" in turn consist of three main groups: Algerians, Moroccans (known as goumiers), and troops from Sub-Sahara Africa (known as Senegalese Tirailleurs).

With him are other Algerians including Messaoud, who wants to marry and settle in France, and the literate Corporal Abdelkader, who seeks equality with settlers for the indigenous people of his country.

Soon the men, dressed in mostly lend-lease American uniforms meet Sergeant Martinez, a battle-hardened pied-noir, who trains them before leading them on their first engagement against the Germans in Italy.

Their mission is to capture a heavily-defended mountain, but it soon becomes clear that their French commanding officer is using them as cannon fodder to identify artillery targets.

Abdelkader calms the situation, but Saïd makes it clear that in this segregated world the French authorities will not give their colonial soldiers anything.

As they cross the German lines, most of the men are killed by a booby trap, including Yassir's brother, and Martinez is severely injured.

An elderly Abdelkader goes to a war cemetery in Alsace to visit the graves of his comrades: Martinez, Larbi, Saïd, Yassir and Messaoud.

In the words of Le Chant des Africains the four actors sing within the film, "we come from the colonies to save the motherland, we come from afar to die, we are the men of Africa."

It was only after the film's release that the government policy was changed to bring foreign combatant pensions into line with what French veterans are paid.

In 2009, the BBC published documentary evidence that showed black colonial soldiers - who together with North African troops made up around two-thirds of Free French forces - were deliberately removed from the units that led the Allied advance to liberate Paris in 1944.

In response Allied Command therefore insisted that all black soldiers should be replaced by European and North African ones from other French units.

[7] As historian Julian Jackson elaborated, "Once Vichyite Algeria had been conquered by the Allies, de Gaulle was finally allowed to go there, in May 1943.

"[8] According to French journalist and writer Julie Le Gac, the director allegedly overlooked the tragic incidents of violence in Italy by the goumiers, the Marocchinate, although in one scene their commander, General Juin, gives the troops the right to raid, verbally forbidding them to rage against the female population.

The website's critical consensus states, "Days of Glory is a powerful historical epic that pays homage to a valiant group of soldiers whose sacrifices have largely been forgotten".