In 1954-1962. The foreign legion took part in hostilities in Algeria, where the National Liberation Front (FLN) began military and terrorist actions against the French administration, the "blackfoot" and compatriots who sympathized with them. Only in 1999, in France, the events of those years were officially recognized as a war, until that time they talked about operations to "restore public order."
"Blackfeet" and evolves
In the middle of the 19th century, Algerian Arabs and Berbers first became closely acquainted with European settlers. They were no longer renegade corsairs, who had previously quite actively settled on the Maghreb coast, and not soldiers of enemy armies, but farmers, artisans, merchants, intellectuals, officials of the French administration. The first thing that caught the eye of the aborigines in the guise of their new neighbors was the unusual and never before seen black boots and boots. It was because of them that they called the Europeans "black-footed." This word eventually became almost the official name of the European population of Algeria. Moreover, Pieds-Noirs (literal translation of this word into French) began to be called them in the metropolis. The Blackfeet were also called Franco-Algerians or Columns. They themselves often called themselves simply "Algerians", and the indigenous people of this country - Arabs and Muslims.
At the same time, not all of the "black-footed" were French. Since any European born in Algeria received French citizenship, the Blackfoot communities included Italians, Maltese, Portuguese, Corsicans and Jews, but there were especially many Spaniards. In Oran, which once belonged to Spain, for example, in 1948, more than half of the Blackfeet were of Spanish origin (this city even had a bullfighting arena). According to Noël Favreliere, who wrote Le désert à l'aube (Essays by a French Journalist on the National Liberation War of the Algerian People), the Black-footed French were generally treated better by the TNF militants than the Algerian Europeans of other origins.
The relationship between the indigenous population of Algeria and the newcomer Europeans could not be called absolutely cloudless, especially at first: the difference in culture and traditions was too great, and excesses happened. However, let us remember how many times in their history the French with enthusiasm and great enthusiasm slaughtered and killed not even the British, Spaniards and Germans, but each other. In 1871, not too far from our time, they destroyed and literally drenched their own capital with blood, killing up to 30 thousand Communards in it and losing about seven and a half thousand soldiers who stormed the city (among whom there were many legionnaires). In July of that year alone, 10 thousand people were shot. An Italian or Polish surname, a "sidelong glance" at a soldier or a gendarme, an insufficiently cheerful expression on his face, and even calloused hands betraying a proletarian origin were considered quite suitable reasons for the reprisal at that time. So the residents of Algeria could not complain about the double standards - everything was "fair": "beautiful France" in those days was equally cruel to both "friends" and "strangers". In the event of a mutiny or unrest, the French authorities of Algeria with the Arabs and Berbers did no worse than the authorities of the metropolis with the purebred French.
From the very beginning, Algeria was a special territory for the French, which they began to develop as a new province of their country, and already in 1848 it officially became an overseas department of France. This was not the case either in neighboring Tunisia, much less in Morocco. And in Algeria, the French behaved quite differently than in "black Africa" or in French Indochina. Sudan, Senegal, Congo, Chad, Vietnam and other overseas territories were powerless colonies, Algeria - "African France". The standard of living in Algeria was certainly lower than in Normandy or Provence, but the French invested considerable funds in its development. “Black-footed” Albert Camus, whose father was Alsatian and his mother was Spanish, already in the XX century, speaking about the standard of living in Algeria, wrote about “poverty, as in Naples and Palermo”. But, you must admit that Palermo and Naples are still not Abidjan, not Kayes and not Timbuktu. The economic indicators of Algeria were constantly growing, and in material terms, the Algerians lived not only not worse, but much better than their neighbors.
Farhat Abbas, one of the leaders of the Algerian nationalists, cannot be called a Francophile. He was the founder of the Algerian People's Union party and the Democratic Union of the Algerian Manifesto, in 1956 he supported the FLN, in 1958 he became the first chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic (located in Cairo), and in 1962 he was the head of the independent Algeria.
But in 1947 Farhat wrote:
“From a European point of view, what the French have created can give them a sense of pride. Algeria today has the structure of a true modern state: it is better equipped than any North African country and can even stand comparison with many Central European countries. With its 5,000 km of railways, 30,000 km of highways, the ports of Algeria, Oran, Bon, Bouji, Philippeville, Mostaganem, its large dams and reservoirs, with its organization of public services, finance, budget and education, broadly meeting the needs of the European element, it can take its place among modern states."
This is a very strange and puzzling statement. Farhat does not seem to deny the obvious, but did you pay attention to the phrases: "from the point of view of a European" and "broadly satisfying the needs of the European element"?
That is, roads, ports, reservoirs, public services and educational institutions, in his opinion, were needed only by Europeans? And what about the Arabs and Berbers of Algeria? Was it all unnecessary for them? Or did they not even have the right to step on the asphalt or take the train and did not move along the roads, but along them?
By the way, house numbers in the Casbah (old town) of Algeria also appeared under the French. Before that, it was almost impossible to find the building you needed, and even the old residents could only find out the address of the neighbors living with them on the same street. However, even this is now often blamed on the colonialists: they say, this was done for police needs and was intended to finally enslave and put the freedom-loving children of the desert under the control of the French administration.
For several generations of the Blackfeet, it was Algeria that was home and motherland, and many of them have never been to either France or Europe. This was the main difference between the "black-footed" and the Europeans of the French colonies, who traveled to Tonkin or Morocco only for a while, so that, having earned money, return to Paris, Rouen or Nantes. And Algeria was also the first and main home of the Foreign Legion, which is why the legionnaires fought for it so desperately and fiercely: with the FLN militants, and then with the "de Gaulle traitors".
In the middle of the 20th century, the “black-footed” were already noticeably different from the French living in the metropolis: they were a special sub-ethnic group, and, while retaining their European appearance and culture, they acquired new character and behavior traits peculiar only to them. They even had their own dialect of French - Patauet. And therefore, the forced resettlement to France after the expulsion from Algeria and the process of adaptation in the new environment were not easy and painless for them.
On the other hand, a large number of Europeanized Arabs appeared in the cities of Algeria (they were called evolvés - "evolved"), who often received education in colleges and universities in the metropolis and were the conductors of French culture among the local population.
But even among the indigenous inhabitants of Algeria not affected by Europeanization, there were many who were quite satisfied with the new order and new opportunities. The peasants have new markets for their products and the opportunity to buy cheap (compared to the days of days) industrial goods. Young men willingly joined the units of the Algerian riflemen (tyrallers) and the squadrons of the Spaghs, which organically became part of the French army, fighting for the empire in all parts of the world.
The lives of those who did not want active contacts with the new authorities practically did not change. The French preserved in the localities the traditional institution of elders, officials did not meddle in their affairs, limiting themselves to collecting taxes, and the former rulers-maids and their entourage can be reproached for anything, but not in a fervent desire to improve the welfare of their subjects and make their life easy and pleasant …
Let's see some photos illustrating the mixing of civilizations in French Algeria.
This is the interior of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the African city of Algeria. The inscription on the wall reads: "Our Lady of Africa, pray for us and for the Muslims":
These are the photographs that could have been taken before the start of the war on the streets of Algeria:
In this photo, two "black-footed" Europeans are quietly walking along Constantina Street:
And this is how the area of the Algerian city of Nemours looked peacefully in 1947:
So, Algeria was a real home for the Blackfeet, but while remaining Europeans, they sincerely tried to bring a piece of Europe to their new homeland. The centuries-long stay of the Blackfeet in Algeria changed the face of the cities of this country. Major of the first parachute regiment, Elie Saint Mark, the Algerian quarter of Bab El-Oued seemed similar to the Spanish cities of the Caribbean islands, and he called the language of its inhabitants (françaoui) "a mixture of Catalan, Castilian, Sicilian, Neapolitan, Arabic and Provencal dialects."
Other authors compared the new quarters of the Algerian cities with the cities of Provence and Corsica.
But "European Africa" did not take place. After more than a hundred years of relatively peaceful coexistence, Algeria was forced to leave not only the descendants of European settlers, but also many indigenous people, whom the nationalists declared traitors.
Tragic confrontation in the Algerian War
So, let's start our story about the Algerian war of 1954-1962. It is little known in our country, but meanwhile it was very bloody and had a civil character: it split the society of Algeria into two parts.
On the one hand, it turned out that not all Arabs and Berbers of Algeria are supporters of the idea of independence and not everyone is happy with the efforts of the FLN to free them from "French colonial oppression." In the outbreak of war, part of the indigenous population of Algeria, primarily the Europeanized evolves, acted as allies of the French.
You may have seen photographs of the founder of the National Front, Jean-Marie Le Pen, with a patch on his left eye (which he had to constantly wear for 6 years, and then periodically put on).
He was injured in 1957 at a rally in support of a candidate from the For French Algeria movement: he was kicked in the face with a boot. It would seem that there is nothing particularly surprising in this incident. But it turns out that the captain of the Foreign Legion received this injury not in the course of hostilities, but during "off-hours", and the candidate for whom Le Pen suffered was an Algerian Arab - Ahmed Jebbude.
In the last days of the Fourth Republic, it was the “black-footed” and generals who defended French Algeria who demanded equality for Muslims from the central authorities. And even the leaders of the extremist organization OAS (which will be discussed later), contrary to the widespread opinion about the anti-Arab nature of their activities, declared that they were fighting not only for the "black-footed" Europeans, but also for the entire people of Algeria, who were going to betray the central authorities of France. They regarded as enemies equally the leaders and militants of the FLN, and de Gaulle and his supporters. Look at the posters of this organization:
Arrested after an attempted military coup in April 1961, the commander of the First Parachute Regiment of the Foreign Legion, Eli Saint Mark, said at the trial that he joined the rebels for reasons of honor: he did not want to betray the millions of Arabs and Berbers of Algeria who believed in France - and these words did not provoke any surprise, no sarcastic and condescending smile.
The tragedy of Harki
Already on January 24, 1955, Mobile Security Groups and Local Self-Defense Groups were created in many cities and villages of the country, in which Arabs served, wishing to protect their homes and loved ones from extremists. They were called "arches" (harki - from the Arabic word for "movement"). Harki units were also in the French army, one of them will be described in another article. And, I must say that the number of Harki (up to 250 thousand people) significantly exceeded the number of FLN militants, of whom, even on the eve of independence, there were no more than 100 thousand.
The bulk of the indigenous population of Algeria was indifferent, but the FLN militants managed to intimidate these people, cruelly cracking down on the "traitors". After watching the Soviet film "Nobody Wanted to Die" (filmed at a Lithuanian film studio by a Lithuanian director and in the original in Lithuanian in 1965), you will understand what the situation was like in Algeria at that time.
The fate of the Algerian Harki was sad. It is estimated that during the years of the war and during the repression that followed after the evacuation of the French troops, about 150 thousand members of such groups died. De Gaulle actually left the main part of Harki to fend for themselves - only 42,500 people were evacuated out of 250,000. And those who ended up in France were placed in camps (like foreign refugees), where they were until 1971. In 1974, they were nevertheless recognized as veterans of hostilities, since 2001 in France on January 25, the "Day of sympathy (national appreciation) for Harki" is celebrated.
In his 2009 book My Last Round, Marcel Bijar, which we started with in the article Foreign Legion against the Viet Minh and the Dien Bien Phu disaster, accused de Gaulle of betraying Algerian Muslims who fought on the side of the French army.
In 2012, Sarkozy pleaded guilty to France and made an official apology to Harki.
And in modern Algeria, Harki are considered traitors.
Split in French society
On the other hand, at first, some of the “black-footed” (of which there were about 1.2 million people) sided with the FLN nationalists, naively believing that they were only fighting for social justice. The slogan of the nationalists "Coffin or suitcase" for these people (who were Algerian French in 3-4 generations and this country was considered their homeland) came as a complete surprise.
Moreover, the Algerian nationalists were supported in the left circles of France, anarchists and Trotskyists - the indigenous Parisians, Marseilles and Lyons - fought on their side.
Jean-Paul Sartre and other liberal intellectuals called on French soldiers to desertion (in the same way, Russian liberals called on Russian soldiers to desert and surrender to militants during the first Chechen campaign).
In 1958, after a series of attacks by Algerian militants on Parisian police officers (4 of them were killed), the authorities arrested several thousand FLN supporters, defeating 60 underground groups and preventing terrorist attacks in airports, metro, television centers, as well as an attempt to contaminate the water supply system. Liberals at that time called the methods of work of the French special services "Gestapo" and demanded an improvement in the conditions of detention of the arrested militants.
And in the last years and months of the existence of French Algeria, another civil war began - between supporters and opponents of Charles de Gaulle and his policies. And the purebred French again did not spare each other. The OAS hunted de Gaulle and other "traitors". De Gaulle ordered the torture of the arrested Oasovites and declared them fascists - people, many of whom, unlike him, after the surrender of France in 1940, did not write appeals from London, but fought with arms in their hands with the Germans and were real heroes of the French Resistance.
On the road to war
The first sparks began to flare up as early as 1945, when the leaders of Arab nationalists decided to take advantage of France's weakness and demand at least broad autonomy, if not sovereignty.
On May 8, 1945, at a demonstration in the city of Setif, a certain Bouzid Saal was killed, walking with the Algerian flag. The result was riots, during which 102 Blackfeet were killed. The response of the French authorities was extremely harsh: artillery, tanks, and in some places aircraft were used against the pogromists. It was then that Larbi Ben Mhaidi (Mkhidi), an activist of the Algerian People's Party, who later became one of the 6 founders of the FLN, was first arrested.
The fire of the incipient rebellion was drenched in blood, but the "coals" continued to smolder.
In 1947, a "secret organization" - the OC was created in Algeria, which became the armed wing of the "Movement for the Triumph of Democratic Freedoms", then "armed groups" of the "Democratic Union of the Algerian Manifesto" appeared. We remember that the founder of this party was Farhat Abbas, quoted above. In 1953, these detachments united, the territory of Algeria was divided by them into six military districts (wilaya), each of which had its own commander. And finally, in October 1954, the National Liberation Front of Algeria was created. Its founders are 6 people: Mustafa Ben Boulaid, Larbi Ben Mhidi, Didouche Mourad, Rabah Bitat, Krim Belkacem and Mohamed Boudiaf), who formed the Revolutionary Committee for Unification and Action. The leader of the military wing was Ahmed Ben Bella (by the way, a veteran of World War II), who managed to organize illegal deliveries to Algeria of a large number of weapons from Egypt, Tunisia and some other countries. The actions of the field commanders were coordinated from abroad. Later, the Muslims of Algeria and France were imposed with an unofficial "revolutionary" tax, and rebel training camps appeared in Morocco and Tunisia.
In the first "partisan" detachment of the FLN there were 800 fighters, in 1956 in Algeria there were detachments of about 10 thousand people, in 1958 - up to one hundred thousand, which were already armed with artillery pieces, mortars and even anti-aircraft guns.
The French, in turn, increased their army grouping in Algeria from 40 thousand people in 1954 to 150 thousand people at the beginning of 1959.
It is believed that about a million French men passed through the Algerian War, 17, 8 thousand of them died during the hostilities. More than 9 thousand have died as a result of illness and injury, 450 are still missing. Nearly 65,000 French soldiers and officers were wounded in this war.
In addition to legionnaires, servicemen of other formations of the French army took part in the Algerian war, but, remaining within the framework of the cycle, we will now tell about the events of those years through the prism of the history of the Foreign Legion.
The beginning of the Algerian war
The night of November 1, 1954 in France is called "the red day of all saints": the troops of nationalists attacked government offices, army barracks and houses of the "blackfoot" - a total of 30 objects. Among other things, a school bus with children in Beaune was shot and a family of French teachers who worked in a school for Algerian children was killed. The confrontation became especially fierce after in August 1955, 123 people were killed in the small town of Philippeville (Skikda), including 77 "Blackfeet" ("Philippeville Massacre"). And on August 20 of the same year, 92 people, 10 of whom were children, were killed by a detachment of militants who burst into it in the mining village of Al-Khaliya (a suburb of Constantine).
Marcel Bijar in Algeria
In 1956, Marcel Bijar, who had already received his first glory during the battles in Indochina, found himself in Algeria. He took the post of commander of the 10th parachute battalion and in 4 months of this year, received 2 wounds in the chest - during one of the battles in June and during the assassination attempt in September. In 1957, Bijar led the 3rd Colonial Paratrooper Regiment, making it a model unit of the French army. The motto of this regiment was the words: "To be and continue to exist."
Bijar's subordinates captured 24 thousand FNL militants, 4 thousand of whom were shot. In February 1957, one of the six founders and top leaders of the FLN, Larbi Ben Mhaidi, the commander of the Fifth Vilaya (military district), who during the "Battle for Algeria" (or "Battle for the capital") was responsible for preparing groups “Sacrificing themselves” (fidaev).
After the destruction of a large group of militants in the mountainous regions of the Atlas (the operation lasted from 23 to 26 May 1957) Bijar received from General Massu the semi-serious "title" of Seigneur de l'Atlas.
Unlike subordinates, many generals and senior officers of the French army did not like Bijar, considering him an upstart, but the Times stated in 1958: Bijar is “a demanding commander, but the idol of a soldier who makes his subordinates shave every day, and instead of wine gives out onions onions, because wine reduces stamina."
In 1958, Bijar was sent to Paris to organize a center to train French officers in anti-terrorist and rebel warfare techniques. He returned to Algeria in January 1959, becoming the commander of a group of forces in the Oran Sector Said: in addition to legionnaires, he was subordinate to the 8th Infantry Regiment, the 14th Algerian Tyralier Regiment, the 23rd Moroccan Spahi Regiment, the Artillery Regiment and some others. connections.
After the end of the Algerian war, in an interview with the newspaper Le Monde Bijar confirmed that his subordinates sometimes used torture when interrogating prisoners, but stated that it was a "necessary evil": with the help of such "extreme" methods, it was possible to prevent more than one terrorist act and a number of attacks by militants on peaceful towns and villages:
"It was difficult to do nothing, seeing women and children with severed limbs."
To help you understand these words better, I will give a small quote from the memoirs of Michel Petron, who served in Algeria at that time:
“They were demobilized soldiers. They left 2 months earlier than us because they were married. When they were found, they lay with their head to Mecca. The severed parts (genitals) are in the mouth, and the stomach is full of stones. 22 of our guys."
But these are soldiers, albeit demobilized. And here are three stories about how the militants acted with civilians.
Gerard Couteau recalled:
“Once, when my platoon was on alert, we were called to release a farm belonging to Arab peasants … This farm was attacked and was on fire when we arrived. The whole family was killed. One picture will forever remain in my memory, I think, because it shocked me. There was a 3-year-old child, he was killed by hitting his head against a wall, his brain spread over this wall."
François Meyer - on the massacre of the FLN militants over those who took the side of France:
“In April 1960, all the tribal leaders and their advisers were kidnapped. Their throats were slit, some were even impaled. People who … were on our side."
And here is the testimony of Maurice Favre:
“The Melo family. This was a poor Algerian colonial, not a wealthy entrepreneur at all. The attackers began by chopping off the arms and legs of the father of the family with an ax. Then they took the child from his wife and chopped him to pieces on the kitchen table. They ripped open the woman's belly and stuffed pieces of the baby into it. I do not know how to explain it.
There is still an explanation. This is what the nationalist leaders called for in their radio speeches:
“My brothers, not only kill, but cripple your enemies. Pluck out your eyes, cut off your hands, hang them."
Answering an "uncomfortable question", the captain of the First Parachute Regiment of the Foreign Legion, Joseph Estu, quipped in an interview:
"The military say:" to obtain intelligence ", in the world they say:" interrogate with partiality, "and only the French say:" torture."
What can you say about this?
Many probably watched the Soviet film "In the Zone of Special Attention", which tells about the "work" of three sabotage groups of Soviet paratroopers, who, during army exercises, were instructed to find and capture the command post of a mock enemy. When I was still in school, I was most struck by the words addressed to the interrogated "prisoner" of one of these groups:
“Well, are you not ashamed, Comrade Senior Lieutenant ?! In war I would find a means to get you to talk."
The hint, it seems to me, is more than transparent.
It should be admitted that in any war and in any army, commanders periodically have to choose: to go on the offensive in the morning on undetected enemy positions (and, perhaps, "lay down" half of their soldiers during this attack) or how to talk with the "language", in the meantime, breaking a couple of his ribs. And, knowing that each of the subordinates at home is waiting for a mother, and some more for a wife and children, it is very difficult to play the role of an angel who came down from the heights of the highest yesterday.
Pandora's Box
Since the fall of 1956, terrorist attacks in the capital, Algeria, have become almost continuous. The first to attack civilians were the FLN fighters, whose leaders ordered:
"Kill any Europeans from 18 to 54 years old, do not touch women and old people."
In 10 days, 43 completely random young men of European appearance were killed. And then the Blackfoot radicals staged an explosion in the old Kasbah of Algeria - 16 people became victims, 57 were injured. And this terrorist act literally opened the gates of hell: all the "brakes" were torn off, moral barriers were destroyed, Pandora's box was wide open: the leaders of the FLN ordered to kill women and children.
On November 12, 1956, Raul Salan, already known to us under the article "Foreign Legion against Viet Minh and the disaster at Dien Bien Phu", was appointed to command the French troops in Algeria. By that time, the situation had already become so aggravated that power in the capital was transferred to General Jacques Massu (commander of the military zone of Algeria), who in January 1957 brought the 10th parachute division into the city in addition to the Zouaves already "working" there.
In connection with the growing weakness of the civil administration, many functions were forced to be taken over by the soldiers of the French army and the legion. Joseph Estou, who has already been quoted by us, who was arrested for participating in the attempted coup d'état in April 1961, said so at the trial about his activities in Algeria:
“I was never taught in Saint-Cyr (an elite military school) to organize the supply of fruits and vegetables to a city like Algeria. On June 25, 1957, I received an order.
I was never taught police work in Saint-Cyr. In February 1957, in September and October 1958, I received an order.
I was never taught in Saint-Cyr how to serve as prefect of the police for 30,000 citizens. In January, February and March 1957, I received an order.
I was never taught in Saint-Cyr to organize polling stations. In September 1958, I received an order.
I was never taught in Saint-Cyr to organize the beginnings of a municipality, to open schools, to open markets. In the fall of 1959, I received an order.
I was never taught in Saint-Cyr to deny political rights to insurgents. In February 1960 I received an order.
Moreover, I was not taught in Saint-Cyr to betray comrades and commanders."
In preparing the article, materials from the blog of Ekaterina Urzova were used:
The story about Bijar (by tag): https://catherine-catty.livejournal.com/tag/%D0%91%D0%B8%D0%B6%D0%B0%D1%80%20%D0%9C%D0 % B0% D1% 80% D1% 81% D0% B5% D0% BB% D1% 8C
On the atrocities of the FLN:
Speech by Joseph Estou:
Also, the article uses quotes from French sources, translated by Urzova Ekaterina.
Some of the photos are taken from the same blog.
