Arriving in Algeria as chief-of-staff to Ducournau's 25th Airborne Division, Thomazo had been transferred to command the Unités Territoriales (U.T.) of part-time pied noir militiamen, with whose views he wholeheartedly identified himself. Tournoux describes him as being “fifty years old by civil status, a thousand by right of military service, but eighteen years old politically”. There was not an intrigue in Algiers into which he had not thrown himself with the total enthusiasm of a Dumas musketeer, and without any fear of compromising himself.

XREF: The 'teenage political maturity but old military experience' paradox is a striking character sketch that connects to broader studies of zealotry and organizational loyalty.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 842