Battle of Algiers
| date | September 30, 1956 to September 24, 1957 |
|---|---|
| place | Algiers |
| output | Military victory: France Political victory: Algeria |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 1400 | 4600 soldiers |
The Battle of Algiers ( French: la bataille d'Alger ) describes the military conflict in which the French army and the Algerian nationalist rebel organization FLN faced each other between January and October 1957 in Algiers . It was part of the Algerian War and was an important element of the French "pacification strategy" in relation to Algeria .
Course and meaning
General Jacques Massu received from the French Governor General in Algiers, Robert Lacoste , the order to take military action against the Algerian nationalist rebel organization FLN, which fought for the independence of Algeria from France, with his 10th paratrooper division . The FLN was particularly organized in the greater Algiers area; the French army hoped to paralyze the organization's activities across the country by smashing the military and political-administrative structures of the FLN in Algiers.
In the further course there were attacks, kidnappings, murders on the part of the FLN, on the other hand mass arrests, systematic torture , deportations by the French military, especially paratroopers (“Paras”) and security forces. The brutal practice, later known as the French Doctrine , systematically violated human rights . To date, 3,000 Algerians who were arrested at the time have disappeared without a trace . The number of attacks fell sharply; almost all of the military and political leaders of the FLN were arrested.
Although the Battle of Algiers was a military defeat for the FLN, the Algerian rebel organization also achieved a political victory. The " dirty war " with the systematic use of torture had discredited France internationally and was perceived as scandalous by large parts of the French public . The political concerns of the FLN, on the other hand, had become the first international public awareness. The Algerian question was therefore no longer an internal French affair. The Algerian nationalists, although weakened by the French repression, were able to count on increasing support from abroad from 1957, thus increasing the prospect of Algeria's state independence from France.
See also
Web links
- Algeria. If you desert, you have to call Alemani - The escape from the Foreign Legion. In: Der Spiegel , edition 36/1959
motion pictures
- Battle of Algiers by Gillo Pontecorvo (1966)
- Lost Command of Mark Robson (1966)
literature
- Bernhard Schmid: Algeria - Frontline State in Global War? Neoliberalism, Social Movements and Islamist Ideology in a North African Country . ISBN 3-89771-019-6 .
- Bernhard Schmid: Colonial Algeria . Münster 2006, ISBN 3-89771-027-7 .
- Franz Rispy: You are accusing ! - Shocking factual reports by refugee Foreign Legionnaires about the tragedy in Algeria. Riza-Verlag, Zurich 1958.
Individual evidence
- ^ Si Mustapha: Algeria. If you desert, you have to call Alemani - The escape from the Foreign Legion. In: Der Spiegel 36/1959 of September 2, 1959. Retrieved January 31, 2013.