Jacques Fonsagrive

Jacques Fonsagrive was a corporal in the French army. He and his colleague, Sgt. Pierre Barres participated in the Battle of Verdun. Both men worked a Hotchkiss machine gun. Fonsagrive was more cynical about the Battle and the overall war than Barres, a truly remarkable feat. Fonsagrive was quite sanguine about the fact that it was better kill than be killed.

Both Fonsagrive and Barres were unknowing witnesses to the Armageddon phrophesied in the Book of Revelations on the battlefield of Verdun. Assuming that the Germans had made use of some Wormwood-based weapon, the two men believed the horrific visions they were seeing were simply hallucinations. When Armageddon was stopped by the dogged fighting of both the French and the Germans, both men returned to the business of the War.