It’s the French way; if the enemy doesn’t shoot you, we will.
Was “Paths of Glory” based on this?
I think that this incident, amongst others, was a seed for the 1957 movie, “Paths of Glory” Kirk Douglas d:Stanley Kubrick. We, here and now, forget how strongly Europe was class ruled. In France this was made clear in the Dreyfus Scandal of the 1890s. Germany had its ‘von’ Prussian & other aristocrats as did Austro-Hungary. Ditto for Britain but apparently not as bad.