After defeating the National Liberation Front militants in the field battles and defeating the terrorists in the battle for the capital (Algeria), the French seemed to be able to build on their success. By 1959, almost all rebel leaders were arrested, killed or fled from the country, army units reliably controlled the borders with Tunisia and Morocco, and many underground cells were defeated. Disorganized and practically uncontrolled detachments of the FLN militants could still plunder the indigenous population, collecting "revolutionary taxes" from them, threatening to slaughter a family or an entire village if they refused. But militarily, they now did not pose much of a danger and were already avoiding direct clashes with regular French troops or ready-to-repulse Arab-Harki detachments.
Operation Rebirth
Under these conditions, attempts by the government to enter into negotiations with the leaders of the FLN caused an explosion of indignation in French Algeria.
On the one hand, too much blood has already been shed between the warring parties, including innocent victims. And this blood divided not only the Arabs and the "Blackfeet", but the entire Algerian society.
On the other hand, the demands of the leaders of the FLN to France resembled the terms of surrender. The Blackfeet, who would have dared to stay in Algeria, and the Arabs, their allies, were promised practically nothing and no guarantees were given. But the Arabs in France (there were about 370 thousand people at that time) were supposed to study in Algerian schools funded by the French Ministry of Education. Demands were made for their jurisdiction to Muslim courts, as well as compensation from the French treasury for the "suffering endured."
On May 13, 1958, Pierre Lagayard, who headed the General Association of Students of Algeria (a participant in the Algerian war, demobilized in 1957, in the future one of the founders of the OAS), led the assault on the residence of the governor of Algeria. Determination he did not lack: it was he who directed the truck to the fences of the house of the general government, and during these events he was guarded by the Arab detachment of Harki.
On the same day, the "Public Security Committee" was created, headed by Raul Salan.
Committee leaders said that the army would be "deeply offended" by the decision to withdraw from Algeria, and demanded the resignation of the government, as well as the adoption of a new constitution and the appointment of Charles de Gaulle as head of state.
At the headquarters of Jacques Massu's 10th division, a plan for Operation Renaissance was drawn up, which provided for a real landing operation to seize government offices in Paris. The first "wave" was five thousand paratroopers stationed in Algeria regiments - they were to land at the Velizy-Vilacuble airbase located near Paris. They would be followed by other combat units from Algeria, which were ready to support the paratroopers of Toulouse and the panzer group from Rambouillet. The link between Algeria and France and an important transshipment base was to be Corsica. Therefore, on May 24, the First Battalion of the Parachute Regiment stationed in Calvi took control of the city of Ajaccio, the capital of the island.
On May 29, Operation Renaissance began (transport planes took off from the base in Le Bourget and headed for Algeria), but was immediately stopped: the French government and the Chamber of Deputies surrendered and resigned.
This was the end of the Fourth Republic. Charles de Gaulle won a convincing victory in the presidential elections.
On December 19, 1958, Raoul Salan, who actually brought de Gaulle to power, was transferred to Paris and appointed inspector general of national defense; on February 7, 1959, he took over as military governor of Paris; on June 10, 1960, he was dismissed.
De Gaulle's betrayal
The first terrorist act in the history of the Fifth Republic did not have to wait long: it was the shelling by the National Liberation Front of the car of Jacques Soustelle, who earlier (in 1955-1956) was the Governor General of Algeria, and at that time the acting Minister of Information. Soustelle, like General Massu, was a staunch supporter of integration, such a person in a high position was very dangerous for the leaders of the nationalists, and therefore a total of three attempts were made on him by the FLN.
Meanwhile, de Gaulle had his own vision of the situation, he said:
“Arabs have a high birth rate. This means that if Algeria remains French, France will become Arab. I don't like this prospect."
He was supported by numerous "minorites" ("reducers"), who openly declared that it was time to stop "feeding the colored population" of the colonies and live peacefully within the borders of "little France". People with a similar temperament in 1940 happily surrendered and submitted to the Germans.
Thus, both the patriots of French Algeria and de Gaulle, in essence, put the interests of France at the forefront. The tragedy was that each side had its own view of these interests, directly opposite to the opinion of their opponents. The Blackfeet and their allies wanted to see Algeria as a prosperous French province - European Africa.
Charles de Gaulle and his supporters tried to isolate themselves from African Algeria in order to preserve the "good old France" familiar to them from childhood - the country of Jeanne d'Arc, Pierre Terrail de Bayard and Cyrano de Bergerac, the kings and musketeers of Dumas, the heroes of Voltaire's "philosophical stories" …
The saddest thing is that both sides failed to achieve their goal and lost. Algeria did not become "European Africa", France is settled by migrants and is rapidly losing its national identity. And therefore, the numerous victims of that war and the tragic struggle of the OAS activists were in vain.
However, it should be recognized that the position of the Blackfoot leaders, who demanded not to give Algeria to the leaders of the defeated FLN and to continue efforts to Europeanize the Arab population of Algeria, was more reasonable and adequate.
Before this country gained independence, the Algerians were determined and even sought to comply with the laws of the French Republic common to all - both at home, and even more so in the metropolis. More and more Arabs received European education, including at colleges and universities in France. An increasing number of people appreciate the opportunities offered to them and their children. The absolute majority of the population of Algeria was quite satisfied with the order established by the French: there were only about a hundred thousand people active supporters of the FLN, even at the peak of its activity. Approximately 20 percent of local Muslims openly supported the "Blackfeet" - they were brought up in the traditions of European culture (in terms of education, Algeria surpassed countries such as Portugal and Greece, in terms of economic development it was comparable to such a country as Spain). In their way of life, they were similar to the descendants of European settlers, differing from them only in the confession of Islam. Algerian tyrallers and spahi regularly performed their service. More than 250,000 Muslim Harki fought against FLN militants as part of the French army or defending their cities and villages from them. Many in Algeria knew that over 100 years of French rule, the number of the country's indigenous population increased from one million to eight and a half, and not to see that the standard of living here significantly exceeds that in any Arab country (including in the now rich UAE), could only be blind.
In principle, the door to French society was open for all residents of Algeria: in order to become a full citizen, an Arab or Berber did not even need to accept Christianity, it was enough only to inform the authorities in writing that he recognizes the supremacy of French law over Sharia law and is not polygamist. Not everyone was ready for this, but the French did not insist in such cases, allowing them to live "in the old days." But the leaders of the FLN, on the contrary, demanded from the indigenous population strict observance of the norms and prescriptions of the Shariah, while the “black-footed”, in their opinion, had no right to live on Algerian land at all, which was reflected in the notorious slogan: “Suitcase or coffin”.
After the implementation of the Evian agreements, the pro-French citizens of Algeria were partially repressed, partially destroyed, the rest were forced to flee the country. The result was a sharp radicalization of the population. The "fighters for independence" and their children, who suddenly wanted to leave their rapidly degrading, impoverished and sliding into a war of all against all countries to "beautiful France", no longer wanted to become a part of French society. They wanted to arrange their own Algeria on the territory of France, first demanding from the French not to interfere with them, and then - unquestioningly obey their new and new demands. Such a future for the French of those years could not even have dreamed in a dream.
The Algerian French and Franco-Algerians (Europeanized Arabs, evolvés) categorically disagreed with de Gaulle's position. During the president's visit to this country on June 4 of that year, they greeted him with the slogans "French Algeria" and "Save Algeria".
On September 16, 1959, de Gaulle declared that Algeria had the right to self-determination, and at the end of January 1960, the "black-footed" students of Algeria revolted. Pierre Lagaillard, Guy Forzy and Joseph Ortiz became their leaders.
Among other things, the students protested against the recall of General Massu, who dared to declare that the army was mistaken in de Gaulle and may refuse to obey him in the future.
Meanwhile, it was with the activities of Massu, an ardent supporter of the idea of integrating Arabs and Algerian Europeans, that the hopes of many supporters of French Algeria were pinned. The posters of the students and the citizens who supported them bore the inscriptions: "Algeria is France" and "Long live Massu."
This performance was quickly suppressed. The leaders of the insurgents, Lagayard and Susini, were arrested and imprisoned, from which they fled to Madrid in December 1960. Here they met with the retired Raoul Salan and Charles Lasherua. The result of this meeting was the conclusion of an anti-Gollist agreement (the so-called Madrid Treaty), from which the OAS later "grew".
We have already talked about Raoul Salan and Lagayard. Let's say a few words about other OAS creators.
Charles Lasherua was a graduate of the Saint-Cyr military school, after which he served in the colonial forces in Upper Volta, Syria, Morocco and Tunisia. During World War II, he fought alongside the allies in Italy, France and Germany. Then, as a battalion commander, he suppressed the uprising in Côte d'Ivoire (1949), fought in Indochina, was an advisor to two French defense ministers, dealing with issues of "psychological warfare". In 1958, he was transferred to serve in Algeria, after the defeat of the rebellious generals, he became one of the leaders of the Spanish branch of the OAS. He returned to France after the 1968 amnesty.
Jean-Jacques Susini is one of the leaders of the students of Algeria, in the OAS he headed the propaganda department, and after the arrest of Salan he became the head of this organization in Algeria and Constantine, was the organizer of several attempts on de Gaulle's life, was twice sentenced to death in absentia. He also returned to France in 1968, but was arrested twice there: on charges of robbery (1970) and in organizing the abduction of Colonel Raymond Gore (1972) - in both cases, the jury acquitted him.
But back to 1961.
It was not the students who posed the main threat to de Gaulle and his government. A referendum held on January 8, 1961, in which 75% of the citizens voted for the independence of Algeria, pushed the military into a rebellion, supported by the "black feet", evolvés and harki (they were described in the article "Algerian War of the French Foreign Legion").
The rebellion against de Gaulle and his government was led by General Raoul Salan, holder of 36 orders and medals, who enjoyed great prestige both in France and in Algeria.
Military coup in Algeria
On the night of April 22, 1961, the First Parachute Regiment of the Foreign Legion (1e REP) took control of all government agencies in Algeria.
Its commander, Major de Saint Marc, said afterwards:
"I preferred a crime against the law to a crime against humanity."
This performance was supported by other regiments of the Foreign Legion and the 25th Parachute Division of the French Army. They were ready to join units of the Marine Corps and some other military units, but the commanders loyal to de Gaulle managed to keep them in the barracks.
The Algerian formations loyal to de Gaulle tried to be led by Vice Admiral Kerville, commander of the French Navy in the Mediterranean, but the Admiralty building was blocked by the tanks of Colonel Godard. In a patrol boat, Kerville sailed to Oran.
At about 15:00 on April 23, units of General Zeller (the former chief of staff of the French ground army) entered Constantine, where the army corps of General Gouraud joined the rebels.
On the same day in Paris, OAS "warned" the government by organizing explosions at two train stations (Lyons and Austerlitz) and at Orly airport. This was a mistake, as it pushed the Parisians who sympathized with them away from the rebels.
On April 24, de Gaulle enacted Article 16 of the Constitution, having received unlimited rights, on the 25th, the 16th Infantry Division loyal to him entered Paris, and French regiments stationed in Germany moved to the capital.
In France, there were numerous demonstrations in support of de Gaulle, in Algeria, supporters of Salan took to the streets, it seemed that things were heading for a civil war. And it is very likely that de Gaulle was morally ready to shed the blood of his compatriots, but the leaders of the rebels did not dare to fight "against their own."
The sea routes were controlled by the fleet loyal to de Gaulle, military formations from France were transferred to Algeria, but the Salan and Challe regiments, hardened in many years of battles, led by experienced and beloved commanders, still seemed able and ready to throw them into the sea. If the rebels were able to repel the first blow and gain a foothold in Algeria, the situation could change dramatically. It is unlikely that after the first failure, de Gaulle would have risked starting a full-fledged and large-scale war, especially since his opponents had high-ranking and influential supporters in the highest echelons of the French army. And among the personnel of the troops heading to Algeria, there were few who wanted to fight. After de Gaulle's victory, the chief of the French General Staff, General Charles Alleret, reported in one of his reports that only 10% of the soldiers were ready to shoot at "OAS militants". And then, having agreed with his supporters in the Metropolis, Salan, perhaps, could go to France.
In the meantime, time was working for de Gaulle, and it was necessary to decide on something. But the leaders of the rebels did not dare to give the order to resist. In the early morning of April 26, they finally gave up the fight. Raoul Salan and Edmond Jouhaux went into an illegal position, André Zeller and Maurice Schall voluntarily surrendered to the authorities.
Maurice Schall, trying to save the commander of the first parachute regiment of the Foreign Legion Eli Saint Mark, who had joined the conspirators at the last moment, invited him to flee abroad, but he refused, saying that he was ready to share the fate of his soldiers and his commanders.
The employees of the Sante Prison in Paris were shocked: they were ordered to consider as state criminals people who in France until that day were unconditionally considered heroes.
Speaking before the court, Saint Mark recalled the humiliating flight of the French from Vietnam and the contempt of the local officers and soldiers who accompanied them. And he said that his soldiers cried when they learned about the order to leave the land of Algeria, soaked with their blood, about their responsibility to the indigenous Algerians who believed in France and the army, who promised to protect them:
“We thought of all the solemn promises made on this African land. We thought of all those men, all those women, all those young men who chose the side of France because of us, risking every day, every moment to die a terrible death. We thought about the inscriptions that covered the walls of all the villages and villages of Algeria:
"The army will protect us. The army remains."
For 15 years I have seen legionnaires, foreigners die for France, perhaps because of the blood they received, but the French are shed by blood. Because of my comrades, non-commissioned officers and legionnaires, who died with honor on the battlefield, on April 21 at 13.30 in front of General Schall, I made my choice."
The prosecutor demanded that Saint Mark be sentenced to 20 years in prison, the court sentenced him to 10 years (of which he spent 5 years in prison - he was amnestied on December 25, 1966).
Two former colleagues of Saint Marc, Jacques Lemaire and Jean Gistode-Quinet, on the envelopes of letters addressed to him, circled and emphasized their ranks and positions, as if proposing to the authorities to dismiss them too, or to arrest them - the de Gaulle government did not dare.
After the amnesty, Saint Mark worked as something like the head of the personnel department at one of the metallurgical plants. In 2011, President Nicolas Sarkozy returned the Order of the Legion of Honor to him.
General Jacques Massu at this time would have been the military governor of Metz and the Sixth Military Region of France. He did not take part in the conspiracy and was not repressed. It was largely due to his principled position that de Gaulle was forced to amnesty the conspirators in 1968: during the events of Red May 1968, Massu, being the commander of French troops in Germany, guaranteed de Gaulle support only in exchange for the freedom of his old comrades. De Gaulle was forced to give in, but he did not forgive this pressure on himself. In July 1969, Massu was dismissed. He died on October 26, 2002.
Let's return to Algeria in 1961, where the supporters of French Algeria “did not agree” with Chall's surrender and made plans to free the former commander of the troops in Algeria from the Tulle prison. In 1973, in France, the film "Le-complot" ("Conspiracy") was even shot about this attempt, in which the roles were played by well-known actors - Jean Rochefort, Marina Vlady, Michel Bouquet, Michel Duchassois.
Another leader of the conspiracy, Edmond Jouhaux, general of the French army and chief inspector of the Air Force, "black-footed" from Oran, to whom Chall donated 300 thousand francs from his personal funds to continue the struggle, became Salan's deputy in the OAS. He was arrested on March 25, 1962 - and on the same day they tried to release him: one gendarme was killed, 17 were wounded.
On April 11, 1962, the day the Zhuo trial began, the OAS organized 84 assassination attempts: 67 people were killed and 40 injured.
This did not save Edmond Jouhaux: he was sentenced to death, which, however, was commuted to life imprisonment. In 1968 he was released under an amnesty.
Andre Zeller was sentenced to 15 years and was also amnestied in 1968.
Jacques Morin, about whom a little was told in the article "Commanders of the Foreign Legion in the Algerian War", was at that time in France, acting as an inspector of the air force, did not take part in the conspiracy. But in 1962, after the conviction of his comrades, he resigned - either he decided so, or the authorities asked him "in an amicable way." He was only 36 years old, he fought all his life and did not know how to do anything else, but he never returned to the army, but the Saint-Cyr military school named him the 1997 officer graduation. And Morin died in 1995.
Another famous commander, the hero of the previous article, Colonel Pierre Buchou, who served as commander of the La Calle sector, was also arrested. At the trial, he stated that he knew about the conspiracy, but did not join because he felt his responsibility for covering up from a possible invasion of militants on the territory of the area entrusted to him, and was acquitted by the jury. He was fired from the army anyway - on November 16, 1961. He later became one of the founders of the National Union of Paratroopers and served as its vice president. He died on April 20, 1978.
The head of the OAS, Raul Salan, was sentenced to death in absentia. On April 20, 1962, the authorities managed to arrest him, this time the tribunal sentenced him to life imprisonment. In 1968 he was amnestied, in 1982 he was reinstated with the rank of Army General and Knight Commander of the Legion of Honor. He died on July 3, 1984, on his tombstone is written: "Soldier of the Great War."
Already familiar to us from past articles, Marcel Bijart did not join the conspirators, but for 12 years he defiantly refused to hang a portrait of President de Gaulle in his office.
Pierre Lagayard was forced to flee to Spain, returned to France in 1968, settled in the city of Auch, and even took over as its president in 1978. He died on August 17, 2014.
The bitter fruits of defeat
This attempted rebellion was followed by large-scale repressions, which actually put an end to the attempts to defend "French Algeria" - the "Blackfeet" no longer had the strength to resist. In addition to the arrests and dismissals of many officers, the elite First Airborne Regiment of the Foreign Legion and two regiments of the 25th Division were disbanded. Leaving their barracks, the 1e REP legionnaires blew them up. Some officers and soldiers of this regiment then went into an illegal position and became members of the OAS, 200 officers were placed in the Parisian Fort de Nogent-sur-Marne (built to defend Paris in 1840), where they were kept for 2 months. while the investigation was underway.
Ironically, it is now home to one of the Foreign Legion's recruiting centers.
The bulk of the privates of the first parachute regiment were transferred to other divisions of the legion. In the Foreign Legion, only the Second Airborne Regiment now remains, which is stationed in Calvi (Corsica island)
Since then, by the way, the phrase "the time of parachutists" has entered the French language: the leftists and liberals use it when they want to say about some kind of "threat to democracy."
And among the former parachutists of the first regiment after the events of April 1961, Edith Piaf's song "Je ne regrette rien" ("I do not regret anything") became extremely popular, but the legionnaires sang different words to her tune:
No, I don't regret anything.
Not about the harm that has been done to me, Not about the capture of the city of Algeria.
About nothing, nothing
I do not regret anything.
And in the parachute regiment of the Foreign Legion
All officers are proud of their past.
And this version of the song ended with promising words:
"And all the officers are ready to start over."
And then "Je ne regrette rien" with this text became the unofficial anthem of the OAS. Even now, as the military bands and choirs of the Foreign Legion regiments perform the innocent original version of this song, many believe that they still sing the words of the forbidden anthem to themselves.
By the way, many of you have heard this song, and more than once: in the film "17 Moments of Spring" Stirlitz under it recalls pre-war Paris, although it was written in 1960.
De Gaulle's government won, but was discredited among the "blackfoot" of Algeria, where the president was openly compared with Marshal Pétain, who betrayed France during World War II. De Gaulle himself now did not trust the "black feet", considering them almost personal enemies. As a result, from participation in the referendum on the future of Algeria, initiated by him, held in April 1962, the people most interested in its outcome were excluded: the "black-footed" of Algeria, evolvés and harki. This was a direct violation of Article 3 of the French Constitution, and this vote could not be considered legitimate.
Old army headquarters
Many citizens of the metropolis, who considered the loss of Algeria more serious than the loss of Lorraine and Alsace in 1879, were in solidarity with the "Blackfeet". Among them was even such a respectable and respected officer as the Chief Engineer of the French Air Force, Knight of the Legion of Honor, Lieutenant Colonel Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry, whose father had been de Gaulle's comrade since the 1930s.
Bastien-Thiry was not a member of the OAS - he was a member of the mysterious organization "Old Headquarters" (Vieil État-Major), created back in 1956 by senior French army officers who opposed the government. It is believed that its top leaders (who remain unknown to this day) played a large role in the fall of the IV Republic, and then organized several attempts on the life of Charles de Gaulle, who did not live up to their hopes.
After the defeat of the Algerian rebels, the "Old Headquarters" formed the "Committee of 12", the purpose of which was to organize the assassination of de Gaulle.
The most famous assassination attempt by the "Committee" was the attack on the president's car in the suburbs of Paris Petit-Clamart on August 22, 1962 - Operation Charlotte Corday. This group was led by Bastien-Tiri.
Some believe that this assassination attempt on de Gaulle was not the first for Bastien-Thiry, and he, under the pseudonym Germain, could have taken part in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate him in Pont-sur-Seine on September 8, 1961. This assassination attempt has long been attributed to the OAS, but now more and more researchers are inclined to think that it was an action of the "Old Headquarters", carried out in conjunction with the OAS, which sent its executors.
On that day, an explosive device hidden in a pile of sand, which consisted of 40 kg of plastid and nitrocellulose, 20 liters of oil, gasoline and soap flakes, went off next to the president's passing car. The data on the explosion are contradictory: people from the presidential security service said that the column of flame rose above the trees. However, some experts argue that the resulting crater does not match the declared power of the bomb. There were even suggestions that the explosive device was discovered in time and replaced by the special services - to be a "victim of an assassination attempt" was then in the interests of de Gaulle, which was losing popularity. The spectacular, but absolutely harmless explosion aroused sympathy for de Gaulle in French society and became the reason for further repressions against his opponents.
Bastien-Thiry's deputy in Committee 12 was Lieutenant Alain de Bougrenet de La Tokne, a veteran of the Algerian war and a former OAS member who escaped from Santa's prison (he later wrote How I Didn't Kill de Gaulle).
Among the subordinates of Bastien-Thiry, it is also worth noting the "black-footed" column of Georges Vaten, nicknamed the Lame: in Algeria, he became famous for creating his own detachment that guarded the neighborhood from the FLN militants. Former skydiver Georges Bernier was previously part of the Delta Group, which will be discussed in the next article. Sergeants Jacques Prevost and Gyula Chari were participants in the battle of Dien Bien Phu, Serge Bernier fought in Korea.
One of the three Hungarians of this group, Lajos Marton, later said that the main informant of the "Committee" for a long time was Commissioner Jacques Cantelob - the controller general of the police and the head of de Gaulle's security service, who, however, resigned shortly before those events. But even without him, the “Old Headquarters” surrounded by the president ended up with several agents who reported on his movements.
Georges Vatin, who was arrested in Switzerland but not extradited to the French authorities (on the grounds that he was sentenced to death there), took refuge in Paraguay. In 1990, he said in an interview that, according to the original plan, de Gaulle was supposed to be captured alive and brought to court, but his car appeared earlier and the conspirators who had not had time to prepare were forced to open fire.
Despite 14 bullet hits in the car in which de Gaulle was, neither he nor his wife were injured.
The story of this attempt begins with the rather famous film "The Day of the Jackal", filmed in 1973 (The Jackal is a killer hired to eliminate de Gaulle after the execution of Bastien-Thiry, and this is already a "fantasy" part of both the film and Forsythe's novel, by to which it was filmed).
Bastien-Thiry was arrested on September 17, 1962, at the trial he compared himself with Colonel Stauffenberg, and de Gaulle with Hitler, and accused the president of complicity in the genocide of the European population of Algeria and Muslims loyal to France. And the camps, into which the triumphant FLN militants drove hundreds of thousands of supporters of France (the same future expected the population of Western Ukraine, if Stalin after the war decided to give this region to the Bandera, but he was not de Gaulle), compared with the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. He said the following words:
“There were other decisions for the future of the Algerians, decisions that would protect the path of sincerity and honor, respecting life, freedom and the welfare of the millions of original French and French Muslims living in this land.”
It is not surprising that when the court sentenced him to death, de Gaulle, contrary to everyone's expectations, did not use his right of pardon, cynically saying:
"If France needs a dead hero, let him be a fool like Bastien-Thiry."
Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry was executed on March 11, 1963, and was the last person to be executed by conviction in France. The fear that he instilled in the authorities was so great that two thousand policemen guarded the road along which he was taken to be shot.
In another response to de Gaulle's actions, desperate terrorist attacks by the Organization de l'Armee Secrete (OAS), created by de Gaulle's opponents, tried to force the government to stop leaving Algeria.
We will talk about the OAS, the Delta squadron and the tragedy of French Algeria in the next article.
