Aristide Demange

Demange was a solier of the French army. He first entered the service in 1918 to fight in the tail end of World War I. He remained in uniform throughout the interwar years and was a sergeant when a new war broke out over Germany's invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1938.

Demange was a chain-smoking, hard-driving, no-nonsense sergeant. He seldom showed signs of compassion for the mental and emotional stresses of warfare on the psychological welfare of his men, or indeed compassion in general. However, he respected his men's accomplishments, a respect that came to be considered high praise by the men who served under him. When a solder joined his squad, that soldier was likely to take a negative view of Demange at first, but over time many of Demange's men, such as Luc Harcourt, came to admire him.

Demange was firmly convinced that the commissioned officers set above him were hopelessly incompetent. The attitude was common among senior NCOs of every army, but even by their standards Demange was especially scornful of his superiors.