If there is one thing on which virtually all the surviving leaders of the O.A.S. are agreed, however, it is that by far the most effectual and imposing operative of them all was Roger Degueldre, the thirty-six-year-old ex-lieutenant who had lied about his nationality so as to join the Foreign Legion, risen through its ranks after outstanding bravery in Indo-China, and deserted from it in disgust after the abortive coup of December 1960. A tough and virile figure bearing wounds from Dien Bien Phu, with vigorous black hair en brosse and a long horse-face, Degueldre had what his senior in the same regiment, Captain Sergent, describes as "the indispensable presence of the leader". He was "carved out of rock that doesn't crumble", says Sergent: "He was the real chief of action in the O.A.S.… All talked, like Susini, but Degueldre acted. Degueldre killed." Nor did he shrink from killing his own men; he once threatened his O.A.S. subordinates: "If I see one of your men in a bar, I will shoot you unless you yourselves have shot the man before I next see him." He meant what he said, executing at least two of his own killers when they were found guilty of embezzling O.A.S. funds.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 1465