Gueules cassées (broken faces)Biernoff, S. and Stein, C. (2008); "Les Gueules cassées (review)", in: ''Bulletin of the History of Medicine'', Volume 82, Number 2, Summer 2008. Retrieved on-line throug

9 December 2015. is a French expression for facially disfigured servicemen that originated in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Colonel Yves Picot is said to have coined the term when he was refused entry to a gathering for the war-disabled.

Background

Trench warfare Trench warfare is a type of land warfare using occupied lines largely comprising military trenches, in which troops are well-protected from the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from artillery. Trench warfare became ar ...

protected the bodies but left the heads exposed.How do you fix a face that’s been blown off by shrapnel?
bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 9 December 2015. The introduction of the steel helmet in 1915 made head injuries more 'survivable', but this reduction of mortality meant a mutilated life for thousands. At the start of the war those wounded to the head were generally not considered able to survive and they would not usually be 'helped first'.Smith, L. V., Stephane, A-R. and Becker, A. (2003); ''France and the Great War'', Cambridge University Press, p. 94. Retrieved on-line throug
Google Books
9 December 2015. This changed in the course of the war, as progress was made in medical practices like oral and maxillofacial surgery and most notably in the new field of

plastic surgery Plastic surgery is a surgical specialty involving the restoration, reconstruction or alteration of the human body. It can be divided into two main categories: reconstructive surgery and cosmetic surgery. Reconstructive surgery includes cranio ...

. Surgeons conducted experiments with bone, cartilage and tissue transplants and the likes of

Hippolyte Morestin Hippolyte Morestin (1 September 1869 – 12 February 1919) was a French surgeon, and associate professor of anatomy at the University of Paris. He was one of the founders of cosmetic surgery. He was dubbed "The Father of the Mouths" after his brea ...

Harold Gillies Sir Harold Delf Gillies (17 June 1882 – 10 September 1960) was a New Zealand otolaryngologist and father of modern plastic surgery. Early life Gillies was born in Dunedin, New Zealand, the son of Member of Parliament in Otago, Robert Gillies ...

and Léon Dufourmentel made enormous advances. Because of the experimental character of this surgery some chose to remain as they were and others could just not be helped yet. Some of the latter were helped by all kinds of new prosthetics to make them look more or less 'normal', which spawned the new scientific discipline of anaplastology.

Gueules cassées

An estimated 4.2 million French were wounded, some 300,000 of whom were classified as 'mutilated'. Of those about 15,000 can be called ''gueules cassées''. Bourdon, M. (2011); ''Bilan des pertes humaines de la Première Guerre mondiale'', published on-line throug
scribium.com
. Retrieved 9 December 2015. Right after the war those facially disfigured were not considered disabled war veterans and exempt from support and veteran's benefits, but that changed later. In 1921 the ''Union des Blessés de la Face et de la tête'' (association of the wounded to the face and the head) was formed. The Colonel Picot mentioned above was one of its founders and a later president of the association. It still exists, currently under the name ''Gueules Cassées'' with slogan ''sourire quand même'' ("smiling nonetheless").

In film

* '' J'accuse!'' (1938), Abel Gance. The film features actual mutilated veterans. * ''

Johnny Got His Gun ''Johnny Got His Gun'' is an anti-war novel written in 1938 by American novelist Dalton Trumbo and published in September 1939 by J. B. Lippincott. The novel won one of the early National Book Awards: the Most Original Book of 1939. A 1971 fi ...

'' (1971),

Dalton Trumbo James Dalton Trumbo (December 9, 1905 – September 10, 1976) was an American screenwriter who scripted many award-winning films, including ''Roman Holiday'' (1953), ''Exodus'', ''Spartacus'' (both 1960), and ''Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo'' (1944) ...

* ''

Chariots of Fire ''Chariots of Fire'' is a 1981 British historical sports drama film directed by Hugh Hudson, written by Colin Welland and produced by David Puttnam. It is based on the true story of two British athletes in the 1924 Olympics: Eric Liddell ...

'' (1981) * '' The Officers' Ward'' (2001),

François Dupeyron François Dupeyron (14 August 195025 February 2016) was a French film director and screenwriter. He directed 17 films between 1977 and 2015. His film '' La Chambre des officiers'' was entered into the 2001 Cannes Film Festival The 54th Cannes ...

* '' See You Up There'' (2017),

Albert Dupontel Albert Dupontel (; born 11 January 1964) is a French actor, film director and screenwriter. Following his father's path, he studied medicine but eventually switched to theater, disillusioned by hospital life. He started his career as a stand-u ...

Music Diamanda Galás Broken Gargoyles: an oratorio for voices, strings, synthesizers, and percussion based upon the poetry of Georg Heym and Ernst Friedrich Roger E. Brunschwig

References

External links

*
Website of the association

Broken gargoyles
article in ''The Guardian'' about much the same thing among Australian veterans
"Facing the Faceless: Erased Face as a Figure of Aesthetic and Historical Experience"
a scholarly article about the phenomenon of disfiguration in art and literature and in relation to "gueules cassées". See Jirsa, Tomáš. ''Czech and Slovak Journal of Humanities'', 5 (1), 2015, 104-119. French casualties of World War I France in World War I Military terminology French words and phrases Mutilation Ugliness {{Authority control