The author describes an acute traumatic neurosis consisting of marked anxiety states in a French officer wounded in Indo-China. This officer was saved from a large massacre by playing dead but was injured by bullet wounds and stabbings. His life was saved by emergency surgery. Two days after this event he developed startle reaction and fear of the dark and insomnia. These symptoms persisted until after his return to France. His history revealed a similar episode during the French liberation in 1944 when he was saved from a firing squad only by the fortuitous arrival of a high German officer. The significant difference between the two episodes seems to be the fact that in Indo-China the patient was completely disarmed. To cope with his acute anxiety he had a fantasy in which he had a machine gun and killed the Vietminh attacker. This fantasy represents an identification with the aggressor.