A new acquisition was the acting regimental commander of Dufour’s old 1st R.E.P., Major Élie Denoix de Saint-Marc. A member of an old Bordeaux family, at nineteen he had been deported to Buchenwald for his involvement in the Resistance, and had later fought in Indo-China, at Suez and in the Battle of Algiers — where he had voiced the strongest opposition to torture. With the face of a tormented ascetic, Saint-Marc was literally worshipped by his tough, pragmatic Legionnaires, who recognised and accepted the purity of his idealism. One day he was heard to exclaim, after a number of whiskies: “I’ve had enough, enough, enough! One day I shall commit a connerie, an enormous connerie, une connerie grande comme çal” And he did.

QUESTION: What was the 'enormous connerie' Saint-Marc actually committed — his role in the generals' putsch against de Gaulle? Worth tracing.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 1334