Maurice Challe

Maurice Challe (born September 5, 1905 in Le Pontet , Département Vaucluse , † January 18, 1979 ) was a French general . He was involved in a coup attempt in 1961 to prevent Algeria from becoming independent from France.

soldier

Challe attended the Saint-Cyr Military Academy from 1923 and became a Sous-lieutenant in 1925 . After graduating from the academy, he enlisted in the air force and was trained as a pilot. In 1932 he was promoted to Capitaine . In 1937 he attended the École Supérieure de guerre aérienne and completed his staff training there until July 1939.

Second World War

In 1940 he took part in the fighting in northern France and became an officer in the Legion of Honor . After the collapse of France, he joined de Gaulle's France libre and worked under the code name Guy for its intelligence service . In May 1944 he was able to transmit important secret documents of the German Air Force to London. After the Allied landing in Normandy , he became inspector of a bomber squadron.

post war period

In 1947 he was transferred to the General Staff of the Air Force and in 1949, as Général de brigade aérienne, he was given command of the French Air Force in the Protectorate of Morocco . In 1953 he was appointed director of the École Supérieure de guerre aérienne . After being promoted to Général de division aérienne , he became Chief of Staff in 1955. Promoted to General of the Air Force (Général de corps aérienne), he was assigned to General Raoul Salan in Algeria on October 1, 1958 .

Algerian war

After Salan's dismissal as Commander-in-Chief and transfer, he took over his position in Algiers on December 12, 1958. The operations against the underground movement FLN ran under the name Plan Challe during this time . Then he was transferred to metropolitan France and was Commander-in-Chief Allied Forces Central Europe (CINCENT) of NATO from May 1960 to January 1961 until he left .

On April 21, 1961, he was one of the four generals, along with Raoul Salan , Edmond Jouhaud and André Zeller , who carried out the OAS coup against de Gaulle in Algiers . The attempt quickly failed and Challe was taken to Paris in La Santé prison.

Last years

Together with Zeller, he was sentenced by a military court on May 31, 1961 to fifteen years' imprisonment and loss of civil rights. After staying in Clairvaux and Tulle , he was released early in December 1966 and was given amnesty by de Gaulle in 1968 . He published his memoirs under the title Notre Révolte and died on January 18, 1979.

Web links

• Biography at the Association of Friends of Salans (French)

predecessor	Office	successor
Jean-Étienne Valluy	Commander in Chief, Allied Forces Central Europe 1960–1961	Pierre-Elie Jaquot