Hors de combat

Hors de Combat, literally meaning "out of the fight," is a French term used in diplomacy and international law to refer to soldiers who are incapable of performing their military function. Examples include a downed fighter pilot, as well as the sick, wounded, detained, or otherwise disabled. Soldiers hors de combat are normally granted special protections according to the laws of war, sometimes including prisoner of war status.

Baroness Orczy wrote in her famous novel The Scarlet Pimpernel of Chauvelin saying, "When we find them, there will be a band of desperate men at the bay. Some of our men, I presume, will be put hors de combat. These royalists are good swordsmen, and the Englishman is devilish cunning, and looks very powerful."

Kurt Vonnegut described himself as hors de combat on the title page of his famous anti-war novel, Slaughterhouse Five: "...who, as an American Infantry Scout hors de combat, as a prisoner of war, witnessed the fire bombing of Dresden ..."

The term is occasionally used in humorous writings or performances as a synonym for some forms of camp follower; this is entirely inappropriate.

See also

• Combatant
• Non-combatant
• Unlawful combatant