[Derocque and Dessaint, cloak and dagger surgeons].
Deroque was 18 years old as the 1914-18 war outbreak. Born of a long surgeon's lineage, he was expecting medical studies but his own sense of duty was so strong that he decided to join up the field-artillery. Twice wounded, he waited for the victory to start again studying. Paris hospital's Interne, he settled in Rouen, the family birthplace, where he was most succesfull in surgery practice. 1939! War again! He turned down to be transfered into military health service in order to set an example of his own honour idea. He write that "war is everybody business, otherwise there would remain no one than peasants to be killed". In June 40, as Captain, he stood on horseback at his battery head. A german plane shot him and he fell dead. Dessaint's fate would have been very different though he was born the same year as Derocque. Since Napoleon, four generations of renowned Officers came before him and he was eager to follow them when World War I began. Immediatly, he joined up Infantery. Incorporated in his father's Unit, he saw him dead hurt as he was in the trench, ready to attack. Wounded at first time, he returned to fight without any delay; some month after, once again wounded, he was near to die. Severely disabled, a leg lost, he settled to become a surgeon. Paris hospital's Interne, he succeeded as chief-surgeon and professor in Rouen where, despite appaling pains, he kept on as long as he could stand up. According to his will, he was buried in his lieutenant uniform, in Dijon.
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D005602:France; D013502:General Surgery; D049673:History, 20th Century; D014857:Warfare
Deroque et Dessaint chirurgiens de cape et d'épée.