Friday, June 12, 2009
ALGERIAN SUNS
I wanted to put in an updated link to my book ALGERIAN SUNS because a couple of people have asked me how to find it..
Here you go
Here you go
Echorouk Online - Interpol hands over Belloumi a document rescinding international arrest warrant issued against him
Echorouk Online - Interpol hands over Belloumi a document rescinding international arrest warrant issued against him: "The drama serial about the 'Belloumi affair' officially wound up yesterday after the rescinding by Interpol of an international arrest warrant issued against the former Algerian international football player wrongly implicated in a brawl in a Cairo hotel lounge during which an Egyptian doctor was seriously injured in his eye by a bottle broken end.
Lakhdar Belloumi who has always claimed his innocence in this unfortunate incident, which occurred 20 years ago, has now been cleared of all legal proceedings thanks to the reconciliation efforts undertaken by the higher Algerian authorities at the initiative of the President of the Republic Mr. Abdellaziz Bouteflika in collaboration with their Egyptian counterparts.
Getting rid at last of this long ordeal, Lakhdar Belloumi told 'Echorouk' that he was bracing now for a 'Omra' or small pilgrimage to the holy places of Islam in Saudi Arabia to thank and glorify Allah, God Almighty for this happy ending."
Lakhdar Belloumi who has always claimed his innocence in this unfortunate incident, which occurred 20 years ago, has now been cleared of all legal proceedings thanks to the reconciliation efforts undertaken by the higher Algerian authorities at the initiative of the President of the Republic Mr. Abdellaziz Bouteflika in collaboration with their Egyptian counterparts.
Getting rid at last of this long ordeal, Lakhdar Belloumi told 'Echorouk' that he was bracing now for a 'Omra' or small pilgrimage to the holy places of Islam in Saudi Arabia to thank and glorify Allah, God Almighty for this happy ending."
Beloumi and Interpol
The President of the Algerian Olympic Committee, Mustapha Berraf, announced yesterday the final settlement of the famous case between the Algerian football star Lakhdar Belloumi and the Egyptian doctor ‘Ahmed Abdelmounaim.’ This case has disabled the Algerian football star, preventing him even leave the country because of the questionable case of aggression which had caused injury to the doctor.
The Egyptian doctor, ‘Ahmed Abdelhadi Abdelmounaim Ahmed,’ had filed a complaint in the Egyptian justice after being shot in the eye with broken glass, Belloumi accused of being the aggressor despite the presence of all Algerian players who had confirmed the innocence of the latter.
Despite this evidence, Egyptian Justice contacted Interpol issuing an international arrest warrant against the Algerian player, which has been denied leaving the national territory even to go to Mecca. The football star The World cup in Gijon in Spain in 1982 has long been affected by this situation.
The settlement of this case came after a conciliation meeting which took place last Tuesday in Cairo in presence of the President of the Egyptian Olympic Committee General Mounir Thabet and the President of the Algerian Olympic Committee Mustapha Berraf and the Egyptian doctor 'Abdelmounaim Ahmed Ahmed Abdelhadi,' according to a report signed by the presidents of two Olympic committees.
At the end of the conciliation meeting, Dr. Ahmed Abdelmounaim signed a letter in the presence of the presidents of the two Olympic committees (Algeria and Egypt), informing the Attorney General of Cairo of the withdrawal of any rights and any action against Lakhdar Belloumi according to the release.
In that letter, Dr. Abdelmounaim asks the Attorney General in Cairo to cancel the international arrest warrant issued by Interpol against Lakhdar Belloumi.
Furthermore, an agreement was signed to cancel any lawsuit between Dr. Abdelmounaim and the President of the Algerian Olympic Committee, being the representative of Lakhdar Belloumi in the presence of counsel for both parties.
It was also made the signature of an act of abandonment, published and registered in the court of ‘El Jadid’, regarding any criminal or civil prosecution proceedings against the former Algerian football star.
The Egyptian doctor, ‘Ahmed Abdelhadi Abdelmounaim Ahmed,’ had filed a complaint in the Egyptian justice after being shot in the eye with broken glass, Belloumi accused of being the aggressor despite the presence of all Algerian players who had confirmed the innocence of the latter.
Despite this evidence, Egyptian Justice contacted Interpol issuing an international arrest warrant against the Algerian player, which has been denied leaving the national territory even to go to Mecca. The football star The World cup in Gijon in Spain in 1982 has long been affected by this situation.
The settlement of this case came after a conciliation meeting which took place last Tuesday in Cairo in presence of the President of the Egyptian Olympic Committee General Mounir Thabet and the President of the Algerian Olympic Committee Mustapha Berraf and the Egyptian doctor 'Abdelmounaim Ahmed Ahmed Abdelhadi,' according to a report signed by the presidents of two Olympic committees.
At the end of the conciliation meeting, Dr. Ahmed Abdelmounaim signed a letter in the presence of the presidents of the two Olympic committees (Algeria and Egypt), informing the Attorney General of Cairo of the withdrawal of any rights and any action against Lakhdar Belloumi according to the release.
In that letter, Dr. Abdelmounaim asks the Attorney General in Cairo to cancel the international arrest warrant issued by Interpol against Lakhdar Belloumi.
Furthermore, an agreement was signed to cancel any lawsuit between Dr. Abdelmounaim and the President of the Algerian Olympic Committee, being the representative of Lakhdar Belloumi in the presence of counsel for both parties.
It was also made the signature of an act of abandonment, published and registered in the court of ‘El Jadid’, regarding any criminal or civil prosecution proceedings against the former Algerian football star.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
TIME LINE 1960 to 1962
Marxists Internet Archive: History Archive: Algeria
Principal Dates and Time Line of
Algeria 1961-1962
From Timelines of History
1961 January 1 General Fernand Gambiez replaces General Crépin as Commander in Chief of the Army in Algeria.
January 8 French voters overwhelmingly approve General de Gaulle’s Algerian policy in a referendum. The measure is defeated in Algeria were 40% of the electorate obeys the FLN’s order to abstain.
January 8 - 15 Five hundred six rebels are put out of action during the week.
January 15 - 22 Seven hundred three rebels are put out of action during the week.
January 25 General Challe resigns as commander of NATO forces in eastern France and goes into retirement.
January 25 Pierre Popie, liberal lawyer and transporter of funds to the FLN, is killed by counter- terrorists.
February 8 A state of seige is declared in Algiers.
February 8 Twenty five people are killed and 84 wounded inFLN attacks in the Orania.
February 10 The Secret Army Organization (OAS) is founded in by Pierre Lagaillarde; Tassou Georgopoulos, former journalist of l'Echo d'Oran, owner of the Café Riche on the Place Villebois Mareuil and a staff sergeant in the Territorial Armies; garage owner George Gonzalès and Robert Tabarot, former boxer and nephew of the founder of Oran Républicain. Raoul Salan, the most decorated general in France will take charge of it soon after.
February 19 A rebel force is trapped by the French Army near Beni Smir in the Aïn Sefra region while attempting to flee into Morocco. Ninety six rebels are killed and 49 escape.
February 20 French negotiators led by Georges Pompidou meet with an FLN delegation led by Ahmed Boumendjel at Luzerne.
February 28 The first OAS pamphlet is distributed in Algeria and OAS posters appear on the walls of Algiers.
March 1 The FLN incites riots in Oran. Europeans are forced out of the city’s Moslem quarters.
March 3 Verdict is rendered in the Barricades Trial. All of the defendants present in the courtroom are acquitted but placed in administrative internment. Joseph Ortiz is sentenced in absentia to death. The other fugitives are sentenced in absentia to prison terms of 2 to 10 years. The leniency shown by the military tribunal leads to its replacement by the Court of State Security.
March 5 Meetings between French and FLN negotiators resume in Luzerne, Switzerland.
March 8 Twenty five Moslem deputies are expelled from the Gaullist Union pour La Nouvelle Repubique for dismissing the FLN’s claim to exclusively represent the Algerian people in the negotiations. March 30
The French secret services create the Algerian Democratic Action Front (FAAD) which is touted as an outgrowth of the MNA and likely to participate in negotiations on an equal footing with the FLN.
March 31 The Mayor of Evian is killed when an OAS bomb explodes outside his home.
March 31 The Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic agrees to participate in talks at Evian.
April 5 The Algerian Democratic Action Front (FAAD) recruits henchmen among the North Africans in the Paris region to eliminate the leadership of the FLN in the capital and bomb the cafés frequented by known FLN sympathizers.
April 7 The Evian Conference opens. France attempts to bring the MNA and Algerian deputies into the talks but accepts the FLN demands that it be recognized as the exclusive representative of the Algerian people and only valid interlocutor when the FLN threatens to break off negotiations.
April 10 France implements a unilateral ceasefire. Military operations are suspended and replaced with patrols under orders to avoid confrontation.
April 20 The first natural gas from the Hassi R’Mel field in the Sahara reaches the Mediterranean coast by pipeline.
April 21 - 22 Two thousand armed insurgents gather in the Forest of Orléans outside Paris and another 400 in the Forest of Rambouillet where they prepare to join armored units and hussards for a march on the capital. They soon disband for lack of orders.
April 22 Generals Maurice Challe, Edmond Jouhaud, Marie André Zeller and Raoul Salan launch a putsch in Algiers.
0300 – The 1st REP, acting on orders from Commander Elie Denoix, seizes strategic locations in Algiers in a bloodless coup.
1915 – General Challe declares over the radio, “I am in Algiers with Generals Zeller and Jouhaud and in communication with General Salan to uphold our oath, the oath of the Army, to keep Algeria so that our dead will not have died for nothing. A Government of abandonment ...is today on the verge of definitively delivering Algeria to the external organization of the rebellion. ... Would you want Mers El-Kébir and Algiers to be Soviet bases tomarrow?...The Army will not fail in its mission and the orders that I would give you will never have any other goal.”
April 23 President de Gaulle delivers a televised address to the Army and the conscripts ordering them to disobey the orders of the putschists and to sabotage their arms.
April 24 Jean Claude Perez, future head of the OAS, is released along with the other French Algerian detainees from Téfechoune where he was interned for his activities during the Barricades of January 24, 1960.
April 25 French technicians conduct an unplanned test of a nuclear device at Reggane. Gerboise Vert, a Plutonium fission device, is hastily detonated to prevent it is possible capture by General Challe's mutineers. The yield, <1 kiloton, of this shot may have been intentionally compromised.
April 26 The Putsch fails and the insurgents retreat with the 1st Régiment Étranger Parachutiste to Zéralda 30 kilometers from Algiers.
April 26 General Challe surrenders to the authorities. Salan, Zeller and Jouhaud go underground.
April 27 General Petit, the Premier’s military cabinet chief, is dismissed and sentenced to 5 years in prison, in the wake of the putsch.
April 28 The 1st REP is disbanded, the legionnaires leave Zéralda Sidi Bel Abbes singing Edith Piaf’s song “Non je ne regrette rien” (No, I regret nothing).
April 28 Over 400 people, military and civilians, are arrested in France and Algeria.
April 29 A strict curfew is imposed on Algiers. Searches and identity checks commence at 8 p.m. The partisans of French Algeria employ a new psychological tactic: whenever they spot a military patrol during curfew, they tap “Al-gé-rie-fran-çaise” on a glass bottle until the patrol passes from view.
April 30 The 14th and 18th Régiment Coloniale Parachutiste and the Parachute Commando Group are disbanded.
May 4 The police and the Army in Algeria are reorganized.
May 4 The Algiers Bar Association is dissolved.
May 6 General Zeller surrenders to the military authorities in Algiers.
May 10 The French Government and the FLN announce that negotiations will open on May 20th in Evian.
May 13 Publication of three Algiers newspapers is suspended.
May 19 The OAS sets off 19 bombs in Algiers.
May 20 Negotiations between France and the FLN open in Evian.
May 20 France decides to undertake a unilateral truce.
May 20 6,000 FLN internees are released.
May 22 To counterbalance the FLN slogan, “The suitcase or the coffin”, the OAS adopts the propaganda slogan, “Neither suitcase nor coffin, one country.”
May 29 The trial of Generals Challe and Zeller begins.
May 31 Algiers commissioner Avoury, a specialist in the anti-OAS fight, is killed by an OAS commando.
June 1 The number of rebels put out of action during the preceding month is placed at 1,200.
June 2 Two hundred captains boo a colonel who hailed the failure of the Algiers Putsch off stage at Camp Valdahon in Doubs, France.
June 7 General Charles Ailleret replaces General Gambiez as Inter-Army High Commander.
June 9 Four people are killed and 54 wounded in FLN attacks throughout Algiers.
June 13 The Evian talks break down over the intransigence of the FLN in regards to sovereignty over the Sahara and departure of Europeans from Algeria.
June 15 Colonel Godard establishes the organizational structure of the OAS.
June 20 The Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic calls to a resumption of negotiations.
June 20 General Nicot is sentenced to 12 years in prison for participating in the putsch.
June 21 General Gouraud is sentence to 7 years in prison for participating in the putsch.
June 28 President de Gaulle, speaking in Verdun, declares, “The Algerian War is finished. There remains the terrorism.” June 28
Colonel Lecomte is sentenced to 8 years in prison for participating in the putsch.
July 1 Moslems in Algiers go on strike.
July 5 Pro-FLN Moslems demonstrate in protest of French refusals to recognize the Sahara as a part of Algeria. Clashes with the forces of public order leave 81 demonstrators dead and 266 wounded.
July 11 Sentencing is concluded for participants in the Algiers Putsch:
Generals Salan, Jouhaud and Gardy and Colonels Argoud, Broizat, Gardes, Godard, Lacheroy and Commandant Vailly are sentenced in absentia to death.
Captain Sergent is sentenced in absentia to 20 years in prison.
Generals Challe, Zeller and Bigot – 15 years
General Nicot – 12 years
Generals Faure and Vaudrey and Commandant Hélie Denoix de Saint-Marc – 10 years
Colonels Masselot and Lecomte – 8 years
General Gouraud, Colonels de La Chapelle and Bernard Sabouret Garat de Nedde – 7 years
July 14 OAS attacks resume.
July 20 During a skirmish between the 22nd BCA and a rebel band near Bouira, Colonel Si Salah is found in shackles among the wounded. An official statement announces that he was killed as a combatant.
July 20 Negotiations with the FLN resume in Lugrin.
July 28 The Lugrin talks breakdown with the FLN holding firm on two points, sovereignty over the Sahara and guarantees to Algeria’s Europeans.
August 1 Algerian Affairs Minister Louis Joxe declares, “No matter what comes, we will all work so that the men and women of Algeria can build their future together.” But then emphasizes, “I am well constrained to ask what the declarations of intent in which our negotiators make the future of Algeria’s Europeans gleam with reference to association with France....are worth.”
August 2 Coup de Fréjac: The Premier warns the cabinet, “If the Government does not prepare for the evacuation and resettlement of the Pied Noirs in metropolitan France, it will bare a heavy responsibility.” The ministers refuse to listen. According to Boulin, “serious studies” show that the departure of 200,000 can be expected in three months following independence. In fact, more than a million leave by during the next year.
August 5 The one o’clock news program on Algiers television is interrupted by the first OAS pirate broadcast.
August 6 The 4th Congress of the FLN opens in Tripoli with 2 European sympathizers, Locusol (who will be killed by the OAS) and Chaulet, in attendance.
August 8 Si Mohamed, the last FLN protagonist of the Si Salah affair, is killed during the capture of the FLN radio station in a suburb of Blida by the 11th Shock Batallion.
August 16 The unilateral truce ends.
August 20 General Jouhaud takes charge of the OAS in the Oran region.
August 21 The first edition of an OAS pirate newspaper is published in Algiers. During the night an armed gang enters the printing plant of l’Écho d'Alger and replaces the paper’s frontpage with one composed by the OAS. Similar operations are repeated in Oran and Constantine.
August 27 Yusef Ben Khedda replaces Ferhat Abbas as leader of the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic.
August 28 Representatives of the OAS meet secretly with those of the Algerian Democratic Action Front in suburban Oran.
August 31 A private radio station reports that the French special services have been in contact with the Oran OAS.
August 31 Commissioner Ouamri, leader of the anti-OAS brigades, is killed by an OAS commando.
September 5 President de Gaulle accepts the FLN position that the Sahara is an integral part of Algeria.
September 7 Maurice Gingembre, liaison agent for the OAS, is arrest on an airplane flying between Paris and Algiers by Colonel Debrosse of the Gendarmerie Mobile, while in possession of numerous documents which lead to the arrest of several members of the OAS hierarchy.
September 8 President de Gaulle survives an assassination attempt. A remote controlled bomb explodes on the Pont sur Seine as the General passes while en route to his home in Colombey-les-deux-églises. The attackers, who used a personal vehicle with the true plates, are quickly rounded up but the organizer, Colonel Bastien Theiry, will not be arrested until after another attack at Petit Clamart.
September 9 Authorities acting on information provided by the documents seized from Gingembre, arrest Colonel de Blinière and generals Vanuxem and Crèvecoeur.
September 21 The trial of General Faure for his role in the Paris Putsch ends. Faure is sentenced to 10 years in prison.
September 21 A new OAS pirate broadcast on the television delivers instructions for actions to be taken on the 23rd, 25th and 28th of September.
September 22 At 10 p.m. , in accordance with instructions from the OAS, Europeans take to the balconies and bang out the message, “Al-gé-rie-fran-çaise” on pots and pans in a noisy show of support.
September 23 At 6 p.m., on instruction of the OAS, a half hour of silence decends on the European quarters of Algiers. Window curtains and shutters are closed. No one speaks. Cars are parked. Pedestrians stand immobile in the doorways. At 6:30, a bugle sounds to announce the end of the demonstration.
September 25 During the night, hundreds of OAS signs, banners and Tricolors are hung from public buildings, harbor cranes and lampposts throughout Algeria.
September 25 Commissioner Alex Goldenberg, specialist in the anti-OAS fight, is killed by an OAS commando.
September 28 At noon, on instructions from the OAS, all civilian vehicles stop where they are, causing a massive traffic jam that paralyzes Algiers for half an hour.
October 1 Colonel Ahmed Rafa, a French citizen of native origin is promoted to General. He is request to take command of the Force Locale (ATO) but declines declaring that he is French and will remain so until death.
October 2 The OAS begins an offensive against the European milieu (mafia). Nearly all the Algiers gangsters will be killed.
October 5 The curfew for Algerian Moslems is reestablished in Paris.
October 9 At 1 p.m., the OAS takes over the television transmitter at Ouled Fayet near Algiers and broadcast the first of several pirate programs.
October 17 At the call of Maâmar Kaci, chief of FLN Wilaya I in France, 20 to 25,000 Moslem workers, immigrants from Algeria, demonstrate in Paris for an Algerian Algeria and the release of Ahmed Ben Bella. Clashes with the police leave a number of demonstrators dead or injured.
October 18 The FLN organizes further demonstrations in Paris to protest the police brutality of the previous day.
October 19 Five hundred of the 11,540 FLN sympathizers arrested during the Paris demonstrations are deported to Algeria.
October 20 The FLN launches 6 grenade attacks on the cafés of El Biar and at Maison Carrée near Algiers. One person is killed and 7 wounded when an FLN grenade explodes in the Café Château Neuf in El Biar at 8:10 p.m. Five minutes later a grenade explodes in the Café du Progrès wounding three people. Several more people are injured when a third grenade is thrown into the café a Saint Raphaël at 8:17 p.m.
October 21 The SDECE ceases support for the FAAD, with the militants threatened by the FLN, they have no other choice than to rally to the OAS.
October 25 François Mitterrand accuses the Government of seeking to negotiate a settlement to the Algerian crisis with parties other then the FLN during an address to the National Assembly.
October 31 Commissioner Louis Pelissier is killed by an OAS commando.
November 1 Twenty five people are killed and 100 injured in demonstrations organized by the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic and the Army of National Liberation to mark the 7th anniversary of the uprising.
November 1 Ahmed Ben Bella and his compatriots begin a hunger strike demanding they be treated as political prisoners.
November 7 The French nuclear testing program moves to the Oasis Military Test Center, an underground site, at In Ecker in the Hoggar region about 150 kilometers north of Tamanrassett. The first test conducted there is codenamed Agate.
November 7 The Mouvement Pour la Communauté (MPC) becomes the Mouvement Pour la Cooperation but its real goal is to fight against the OAS.
November 9 The National Assembly rejects the Valentin Amendment aka the Salan Amendment which calls for a reduction in term of service to 18 months for conscripts from metropolitan France and the mobilization of 8 military classes in Algeria.
November 10 René Joubert, commissioner of the anti-OAS brigades, is killed in a barroom by an OAS commando while celebrating his impending departure from Algeria.
November 12 Four policemen are killed during an attack by OAS commandos in the Rue Michelet, Algiers.
November 13 Members of the MPC bomb three downtown Algiers bars suspected of being gathering spots for the OAS.
November 13 A patrol of legionnaires is ambushed near Géryville. Five men are killed and seven are wounded.
November 14 Ahmed Ben Bella and his fellow prisoners are transferred to Garches.
November 15 The MPC bombs three more downtown Algiers bars during the afternoon.
November 20 Ahmed Ben Bella and his fellow prisoners end their hunger strike.
November 20 William Levy, Chairman of the Algiers section of the French Socialist Party (SFIO), is killed by an OAS commando.
November 22 The OAS sets off 18 explosive devices in Paris during the night.
November 27 FLN member Gueboub Boualen murders suspected OAS supporter Roger Falip.
December 4 Abdherramane Farés, future President of the Provisional Executive, is arrested on suspicion of collecting funds for the FLN.
December 4 A pro-French demonstration in Constantine draws 5,000 people.
December 5 The anti-OAS SAC and MPC brigades arrive in Algiers. At the same time, 200 police inspectors assigned to “Mission C” arrive by special plane and establish headquarters at the police academy in Hussein Dey near Algiers.
December 6 The cabinet issues a decree disbanding the OAS.
December 7 The OAS set off a small plastic bomb outside Saint Joseph’s church in Bab el Oued to protest the pastor’s pro-FLN position. December 8
Captain Abdelaziz Bouteflika, under a false Moroccan identity, visits the prisoners at the Château d'Aulnoy, to persuade Ben Bella to side with Boumediene against the GPRA’s willingness to negotiate.
December 9 French and FLN negotiators meet at Lons le Saunier in the Jura.
December 12 President de Gaulle issues an amnesty to 2,500 FLN members.
December 14 The OAS sinks an LST housing a French military radio relay transmitter in the port of Algiers. A sailor is killed in the explosion.
December 15 Alain Peyrefitte formulates a plan for the partition of Algeria at the request of President de Gaulle.
December 16 Colonel Ranson, head of military intelligence in Oran, is killed by the OAS.
December 19 Paris police break up an anti-OAS demonstration injuring hundreds among the crowd of nearly 20,000.
December 24 The OAS attacks the Algiers headquarters of the SAC and MPC anti-OAS brigades with bazookas and automatic weapons.
December 26 A repatriation law is enacted. 969,216 residents of Algeria become eligible for repatriation to metropolitan France.
December 28 Twenty one French soldiers are killed in an ambush.
1962 January 3 Philippe Castille, perpetrator of the bazooka attack on General Salan in 1957, who joined the OAS after escaping, is arrested once more in Paris.
January 3 Nineteen people are killed during the night in clashes between the OAS and FLN at Oran.
January 4 A lieutenant from the 43rd Infantry Regiment deserts to the OAS with his company’s arms.
January 4 An OAS terrorist cell attacks the Paris headquarters of the Communist Party.
January 7 An OAS cell enters the Satory Army base and seizes arms and ammunition.
January 8 Colonel Château Jaubert rejoins the OAS and takes command of the organization in Constantine.
January 9 Father Davezies trial on charges of aiding the FLN opens.
January 11 FLN and OAS terrorist stage 8 attacks in Algiers.
January 18 OAS terrorists launch 17 attacks in Paris.
January 19 Two leaders of the Algiers OAS are executed by their peers for contacting the French authorities to arrange negotiations on Alain Peyrefitte’s partition plan.
January 22 The French Foreign Office on the Quai d'Orsay, Paris is bombed by the OAS.
January 24 Algiers observes a five minute silence in memory of those who died on the barricades on January 24, 1960. At 6 o’clock in the afternoon on instructions from the OAS, the city’s European quarters fall silent.
January 25 Military posts in the Bled are closed and the troops withdraw to the coast.
January 27 Negotiations between the French and the FLN resume.
January 29 La Villa d'Andréa, command post of the counter-terrorist SAC in Algiers, is destroyed by an OAS bomb. The blast kills 21 people including 2 OAS prisoners being held in the cellar of the collapsed building.
February 1 A new SAC counter-terrorist squad arrives in Algiers and sets up headquarters in La Villa Raja.
February 2 Colonel Godard and Captain Pierre Sergent (OAS) are sentenced to 20 years in prison in absentia.
February 7 Algiers Gendarmes Mobiles, acting on intelligence reports, kill Captain Pivain of the OAS.
February 7 An FLN commando machine guns the entrance to the Lycée Bugeaud in Algiers killing one high school student and wound several others.
February 8 An anti-OAS demonstration organized by the Communist Party draws 10,000 protesters into the Place de la Bastille, Paris. Police charge the crowd killing 8 people including 3 women and a 16 year old boy who vainly sought refuge in the Charonne Metro station. 140 police are injured in the melee.
February 10 Si Azedine reorganizes the Algiers Autonomous Zone which had been broken up by General Massu.
February 11 A week of negotiation between French officials and the FLN begins in Rousses. The French negotiators argue unsuccessfully in favor of granting the benefits of Algerian citizenship to the Pied Noirs.
February 14 Police and OAS supporters clash in Algiers and Oran.
February 15 OAS commandos attack La Villa Raja headquarters of the SAC with bazookas and automatic weapons killing a number of the counter-terrorists and wound several more. Several of the wounded SAC men are killed by another OAS gang when their car arrives at Maillot hospital in Bab el Oued.
February 19 The OAS bombs the FLN camp at Oujda, Morocco using two T28 planes taken from a French base at Senia near Oran.
February 22 FLN attacks on European civilians in Algiers leave 23 people dead.
February 24 Delegate General Jean Morin instructs the prefects by telegram, “The French Republic will uphold the French nationality of all in Algeria who currently possess it and have not expressed the desire to renounce it.” February 25
The OAS kills 68 Moslem civilians in retaliation for the February 22nd FLN attacks that left 23 Europeans dead. A 4 p.m. curfew is imposed on Algiers.
February 27 OAS commandos attack the Maison Carré barracks of the Gendarmes Mobiles in suburban Algiers destroying the fuel and munitions depots.
February 27 The French Government information office issues a bulletin on the cease fire indicating that, “Nearly all the French will remain in Algeria after independence.”
March 1 Two OAS car bombs explode in the Moslem quarter of Oran killing 23 people and wounding 32.
March 2 OAS commandos enter the prisons at Algiers and Oran and kill several FLN prisoners.
March 2 A government circular specifies that on the day after the cease fire begins, two categories of people will be amnestied: Algerian Moslems who have participated in the FLN uprising and members of the French military who have committed infractions during the course of their missions.
March 5 The OAS sets off over 130 explosive devices in Algiers during the night.
March 7 The Evian Negotiations begin.
March 11 Measures to be taken for the reception and classification of French repatriates in Metropolitan France are officially published.
March 13 Michel Debré responding to General Ailleret’s question asking whether Algerian Moslems will lose their French citizenship automatically declares; "Yes, if they remain in Algeria but if they come to metropolitan France they will be able to reclaim French nationality and to benefit from the assistance to the repatriates."
March 15 Berber writer Mouloud Feraoun is killed along with 5 other people by the OAS at Beau-fraisier between Bab el Oued and El Biar.
March 16 A gang holds up the Bata shoe warehouse in Bab el Oued and carries off several hundred pairs for the OAS maquis.
March 18 The Evian Accords are signed by Belkacem Krim for the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic and Louis Joxe, Robert Buron and Jean de Broglie for France.
March 18 The FLN becomes a legal political party.
March 19 A ceasefire is declared in Algeria at noon.
March 19 Abderhamane Farés, FLN treasurer, is freed from prison.
March 19 Christian Fouchet is named French High Commissioner in Algeria.
March 20 Abderahman Farés is nominated to be President of the Provisional Executive in Algeria.
March 20 Ahmed Ben Bella and his fellow prisoners are released from detention at Aulnoy.
March 20 Algiers and Oran are paralyzed for 24 hours by an OAS general strike.
March 20 In Médéa, an officer of the ALN declares publicly: "OAS or no OAS, we do not want any more a French in Algeria."
March 21 The OAS issues an ultimatum to the Army prohibiting the later from armed entry into Bab el Oued as of March 23rd at midnight.
March 21 Clashes between Harkis and the FLN at Saint Denis du Sig leave 100 people dead.
March 22 The OAS fires 6 mortar shells on the Place du Gouvernement below the Algiers Casbah killing 24 and wounding 55 Moslem civilians.
March 22 An OAS squadron attacks an armored patrol of the Gendarmrie Mobile in the heart of Algiers. Eighteen policemen are killed and 25 others wounded.
March 22 An amnesty decree for FLN convicts is published.
March 23 An OAS gang robs the Bank of Algeria at Oran of 2,140,315,000 old francs.
March 23 In Bab el Oued several military patrols are disarmed by commandos of the OAS. A shootout between an Army patrol and rebels manning an OAS checkpoint on the Place Desaix leaves dead and wounded among the soldiers. At noon the Army imposes a total blockade on the quarter and calls in tanks and air support during the ensuing battle which leaves 17 dead and 97 wounded from the ranks of the forces of public order. Among the rebels and civilian populace, 18 are killed and 55 wounded. The inhabitants of Bab el Oued, who return to work are stopped and interned in the camps recently emptied of prisoners FLN.
March 24 During the night, nearly 20,000 police surround Bab el Oued. A permanent curfew is imposed on the quarter. All telecommunications are cutoff. The residents are confined to their home except for women who are allowed out for one hour between 9 and 10 a.m. The Army is ordered to fire without warning on violators.
March 24 At 8 a.m. with many of the building terraces of Bab el Oued occupied by soldiers, a shot is fired from a building on the Rue Mizon at police patrol in the street below. The gendarmes respond by showering the surrounding buildings will heavy machinegun fire for over half an hour.
March 25 Algerian deputies Abdesselam and Djebour receive a message from the provisional executive declaring them servants of colonialism and announcing their death sentence issued by the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic.
March 25 General Jouhaud, Naval Lieutenant Guillaume and Commander Camelin are arrested in Oran.
March 26 A massive demonstration of support for the besieged quarter of Bab el Oued is organized in Algiers. The procession enters the Rue d’Isly proceeded by the Tricolor and la Marseillaise where a regiment of Tirailleurs Algériens opens fire on the demonstrators killing 46 and wounding 200. March 27
A United Nations report estimates that 263,000 Algerian Moslems face political persecution if Algeria becomes independent.
March 28 An OAS maquis is established in the Ouarsenis.
March 29 The blockade of Bab el Oued is lifted. 7,500 apartments were search and ransacked. 15,000 residents have been stopped and interned for identity checks.
March 30 The OAS establishes a National Council of the Resistance (CNR) under the presidency of Georges Bidault.
March 31 Desertions from the French Army total 1,670 for the month of March.
April 1 Si Azedine, head of the FLN Algiers Autonomous Zone, delivers safe conduct passes to the French Army allowing its patrols to enter the Moslem quarters of the city.
April 2 The Europeans population begins a mass exodus from the Algeria. They must have an exit visa and wait several days for a boat or plane to leave the country at their own expense, the French government having not foreseen the need to finance resettlement. The Pied Noirs leave behind 600 cemeteries and 300,000 graves.
April 5 The 15,000 residents of Bab el Oued who were arrested during the blockade are released.
April 7 Lieutenant Roger Degueldre, head of the OAS Delta commandos is arrested in Algiers.
April 7 Louis Joxe addresses a note to the French High Commissioner Christian Fouchet, “We should not hesitate to gather and protect those (Harkis) who would be threatened and if necessary transport them to the metropolis.” April 8
The Evian Accords are approved by 90.7% of the voters in a referendum conducted in metropolitan France.
April 9 The OAS launches a grenade and mortar attack on the Summer Palace at Algiers around 11 p.m.
April 10 The ATO, a local force composed of armed Moslems, begins patrolling and making stops for identity checks. They will not enter the European strongholds of Bab el Oued in Algiers, Ekmule in Oran or Saint Eugene until June 25th.
April 11 After a brief period of success, the OAS guerrillas in the Ouarsenis region are wiped out by the FLN and the French Army which enjoys the advantage of air support. A captain, 7 officers and 46 men of the OAS are captured.
April 12 The FLN announces the first mass expulsion of Europeans. Nearly 6,000 are to be displaced.
April 13 Abderahmane Farès presides over the first meeting of the provisional executive council.
April 13 General Edmond Jouhaud is found guilty and sentenced to death.
April 14 The Government of Premier Michel Debré resigns.
April 14 Two French soldiers are killed and 3 wounded in a skirmish with FLN rebels near Géryville. Twenty six rebels are killed and 5 captured.
April 17 General Fourquet replaces General Ailleret as Commander in Chief of the Army in Algeria.
April 19 The Cabinet rejects a proposal for a general repatriation of the Harkis.
April 20 General Salan and Captain Jean Ferrandi (OAS) are arrested in Algiers.
April 26 Premier Georges Pompidou assures the National Assembly that, “All necessary provisions will be taken to prevent reprisals after Algeria gains independence.” April 29
The Government of Georges Pompidou takes office.
May 1 Beryl, the second underground nuclear test at the Oasis Military Test Center, ends with an accidental release of radioactive fallout to the atmosphere. The French will continue to test nuclear weapons at the site for another three years before moving the program to Muaroa Atoll in Polynesia.
May 2 A car bomb explodes in the port of Algiers killing 60 and wounding 135 Moslem dockworkers.
May 5 André Canal aka Le Monocle, head of the OAS in metropolitan France, is arrested.
May 6 An OAS commando opens the valves of a gasoline tanker parked on the heights above the Algiers Casbah. Quick intervention by European firemen saves the Moslem quarter from conflagration.
May 8 A National Assembly deputy reports that General Katz, military commander of Oran, has remarked, “Give me a battalion of the ALN and I will reduce the OAS to Oran.” May 11
Terrorist attacks in Algiers during the preceding week have claimed the lives of 230 Moslems and 11 Europeans.
May 12 Army officers are ordered not to take individual initiative in matters related to the repatriation of the Harkis.
May 13 The OAS distributes forged exit visas to Europeans allowing them to leave Algeria.
May 14 FLN commandos stage grenade and machine pistol attacks against several Algiers bars. Seventeen European civilians are killed and 35 wounded.
May 15 OAS commandos respond to the FLN attacks by killing 56 and wounding 37 Moslem civilians in Algiers. A 6 p.m. curfew is imposed on the city.
May 15 The trial of OAS leader General Raoul Salan begins in Paris.
May 16 Raoul Salan delivers his opening remarks to the tribunal declaring, “I need only render an account to those who suffered and died for having believed in a disavowed word and betrayed engagements.” May 16
Si Azedine, leader of the Algiers Autonomous Zone, holds a press conference to announce that the FLN will continue attacks on Europeans as long as the OAS continues to attack Moslems.
May 17 The 7th Régiment de Tirailleurs Algériens leaves Algeria and is stationed at Épinal, France.
May 18 François Mitterrand, testifying at the trial of Raoul Salan, blames Michel Debré for the 1957 bazooka attack on the General. Debré denies the allegation.
May 18 Jean Jacques Susini meets with Abderahman Farés, President of the Provisional Executive in Algeria, to discuss an OAS – FLN ceasefire.
May 18 Bachaga Boualam leaves Algeria for France with his Harkis and their dependents.
May 20 One hundred twelve Pied Noir and pro-French Algerian police officers are transferred to metropolitan France at the request of the FLN.
May 22 The freedom to leave Algeria without an exit permit is granted to the women, children under the age of 19 years and men over the age of 65.
May 23 General Salan is found guilty by the High Court and sentenced to life in prison.
May 26 The first reception camp for Harkis in metropolitan France is opened at Larzac.
May 27 An ordinance dissolves the High Court. The move follows criticism of the Court’s lenient sentence in the Salan case. May 30
The Court of Military Justice is instituted.
May 31 OAS leader Jean Jacques Susini declares a truce.
June 3 Twenty seven farm workers including 8 Europeans are kidnapped by the FLN at Birtoutat, 20 kilometers from Algiers.
June 4 The Court of Cassation rejects the appeal of General Edmond Jouhaud and Sergeant Albert Dovecar who are sentenced to death for their participation in the OAS.
June 5 From his prison General Jouhaud, calls for an end to OAS operations.
June 7 Two OAS members; Sergeant Albert Dovecar and Claude Piegts, a Pied Noir civilian, are shot by a firing squad at the Fort of Trou d'Enfer.
June 11 General de Larminat, Gaullist President of the Court of Military Justice, who believes the soldiers cause is lost, commits suicide so as, “not to have to condemn brilliant soldiers.”
June 11 OAS attacks resume. The University of Algiers library is destroyed in a fire.
June 14 General Ginestet and Colonel Mabille are killed by the OAS in Oran.
June 15 An OAS truck bomb claims 40 civilian and military casualties and heavily damages the Algiers city hall.
June 17 Jean Jacques Susini of the OAS and Chouki Moustefai of the FLN reach an accord.
June 19 General Salan, imprisoned at Fresnes, approves the OAS - FLN accords.
June 19 The curfew is lifted in Algeria.
June 20 Eighteen hundred Moslem auxiliaries replace 1,500 European police.
June 20 Ahmed Ben Bella and Houari Boumediene reject the OAS – FLN accords. June 21
The forces of public order are prohibited from intervening in favor of persons threatened by the new regime in Algeria.
June 25 The OAS sets fire to the British Petroleum fuel depot in the port of Oran. The fire burns for three days.
June 26 Belkacem Krim, who favors allowing the European colons to remain in Algeria, clashes with Ahmed Ben Bella and Houari Boumedienne, who join Yuossef Ben Khedda in opposition.
June 27 Abderahmane Farès' provisional executive resigns.
June 27 The last OAS pirate broadcast appears on Oran televisions.
June 27 General Paul Gardy, who replaced Raoul Salan as leader of the OAS, leaves Algeria for Spain with his staff. OAS resistance ends in Algeria.
June 28 Lieutenant Roger Degueldre, leader of the OAS Delta commandos, is sentenced to death by the Court of Military Justice.
June 30 Ahmed Ben Bella breaks with the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic.
July 1 Algerians approve the Evian Accords in a referendum by a vote of 5,993,754 to 16,478.
July 1 Messali Hadj dissolves the MNA and announces the formation of the Party of the Algerian People (PPA) with the professed aim, “to perfect the independence of Algeria and to build the sovereign, democratic and social Algerian Republic.” He will not be permitted to return to Algeria.
July 3 France recognizes Algerian independence. National identity cards issued in Algeria are declared void. French Algerians of indigenous origin automatically become Algerian citizens. Those wishing to retain French citizenship must leave Algeria and request reintegration from a court in France.
July 4 The Provisional Government of the Republic of Algeria assumes power in Algiers under the presidency of Youssef Ben Khedda.
July 4 Moslem army units throughout Algeria desert en masse taking arms and equipment with them.
July 5 Algerian independence is proclaimed by the Provisional Government after a two day delay so that the declaration would coincide with the 132nd anniversary of the French conquest of Algiers.
July 5 The French National Assembly revokes the parliamentary immunity of Georges Bidault, the President of the CNR.
July 5 European civilians are massacred in Oran. Nearly a thousand people are killed, injured or disappear. French troops obey General Katz’s orders not to intervene.
July 5 The headline of France Soir proclaims, “AFTER 132 YEARS ALGERIA IS NO LONGER FRENCH”.
Principal Dates and Time Line of
Algeria 1961-1962
From Timelines of History
1961 January 1 General Fernand Gambiez replaces General Crépin as Commander in Chief of the Army in Algeria.
January 8 French voters overwhelmingly approve General de Gaulle’s Algerian policy in a referendum. The measure is defeated in Algeria were 40% of the electorate obeys the FLN’s order to abstain.
January 8 - 15 Five hundred six rebels are put out of action during the week.
January 15 - 22 Seven hundred three rebels are put out of action during the week.
January 25 General Challe resigns as commander of NATO forces in eastern France and goes into retirement.
January 25 Pierre Popie, liberal lawyer and transporter of funds to the FLN, is killed by counter- terrorists.
February 8 A state of seige is declared in Algiers.
February 8 Twenty five people are killed and 84 wounded inFLN attacks in the Orania.
February 10 The Secret Army Organization (OAS) is founded in by Pierre Lagaillarde; Tassou Georgopoulos, former journalist of l'Echo d'Oran, owner of the Café Riche on the Place Villebois Mareuil and a staff sergeant in the Territorial Armies; garage owner George Gonzalès and Robert Tabarot, former boxer and nephew of the founder of Oran Républicain. Raoul Salan, the most decorated general in France will take charge of it soon after.
February 19 A rebel force is trapped by the French Army near Beni Smir in the Aïn Sefra region while attempting to flee into Morocco. Ninety six rebels are killed and 49 escape.
February 20 French negotiators led by Georges Pompidou meet with an FLN delegation led by Ahmed Boumendjel at Luzerne.
February 28 The first OAS pamphlet is distributed in Algeria and OAS posters appear on the walls of Algiers.
March 1 The FLN incites riots in Oran. Europeans are forced out of the city’s Moslem quarters.
March 3 Verdict is rendered in the Barricades Trial. All of the defendants present in the courtroom are acquitted but placed in administrative internment. Joseph Ortiz is sentenced in absentia to death. The other fugitives are sentenced in absentia to prison terms of 2 to 10 years. The leniency shown by the military tribunal leads to its replacement by the Court of State Security.
March 5 Meetings between French and FLN negotiators resume in Luzerne, Switzerland.
March 8 Twenty five Moslem deputies are expelled from the Gaullist Union pour La Nouvelle Repubique for dismissing the FLN’s claim to exclusively represent the Algerian people in the negotiations. March 30
The French secret services create the Algerian Democratic Action Front (FAAD) which is touted as an outgrowth of the MNA and likely to participate in negotiations on an equal footing with the FLN.
March 31 The Mayor of Evian is killed when an OAS bomb explodes outside his home.
March 31 The Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic agrees to participate in talks at Evian.
April 5 The Algerian Democratic Action Front (FAAD) recruits henchmen among the North Africans in the Paris region to eliminate the leadership of the FLN in the capital and bomb the cafés frequented by known FLN sympathizers.
April 7 The Evian Conference opens. France attempts to bring the MNA and Algerian deputies into the talks but accepts the FLN demands that it be recognized as the exclusive representative of the Algerian people and only valid interlocutor when the FLN threatens to break off negotiations.
April 10 France implements a unilateral ceasefire. Military operations are suspended and replaced with patrols under orders to avoid confrontation.
April 20 The first natural gas from the Hassi R’Mel field in the Sahara reaches the Mediterranean coast by pipeline.
April 21 - 22 Two thousand armed insurgents gather in the Forest of Orléans outside Paris and another 400 in the Forest of Rambouillet where they prepare to join armored units and hussards for a march on the capital. They soon disband for lack of orders.
April 22 Generals Maurice Challe, Edmond Jouhaud, Marie André Zeller and Raoul Salan launch a putsch in Algiers.
0300 – The 1st REP, acting on orders from Commander Elie Denoix, seizes strategic locations in Algiers in a bloodless coup.
1915 – General Challe declares over the radio, “I am in Algiers with Generals Zeller and Jouhaud and in communication with General Salan to uphold our oath, the oath of the Army, to keep Algeria so that our dead will not have died for nothing. A Government of abandonment ...is today on the verge of definitively delivering Algeria to the external organization of the rebellion. ... Would you want Mers El-Kébir and Algiers to be Soviet bases tomarrow?...The Army will not fail in its mission and the orders that I would give you will never have any other goal.”
April 23 President de Gaulle delivers a televised address to the Army and the conscripts ordering them to disobey the orders of the putschists and to sabotage their arms.
April 24 Jean Claude Perez, future head of the OAS, is released along with the other French Algerian detainees from Téfechoune where he was interned for his activities during the Barricades of January 24, 1960.
April 25 French technicians conduct an unplanned test of a nuclear device at Reggane. Gerboise Vert, a Plutonium fission device, is hastily detonated to prevent it is possible capture by General Challe's mutineers. The yield, <1 kiloton, of this shot may have been intentionally compromised.
April 26 The Putsch fails and the insurgents retreat with the 1st Régiment Étranger Parachutiste to Zéralda 30 kilometers from Algiers.
April 26 General Challe surrenders to the authorities. Salan, Zeller and Jouhaud go underground.
April 27 General Petit, the Premier’s military cabinet chief, is dismissed and sentenced to 5 years in prison, in the wake of the putsch.
April 28 The 1st REP is disbanded, the legionnaires leave Zéralda Sidi Bel Abbes singing Edith Piaf’s song “Non je ne regrette rien” (No, I regret nothing).
April 28 Over 400 people, military and civilians, are arrested in France and Algeria.
April 29 A strict curfew is imposed on Algiers. Searches and identity checks commence at 8 p.m. The partisans of French Algeria employ a new psychological tactic: whenever they spot a military patrol during curfew, they tap “Al-gé-rie-fran-çaise” on a glass bottle until the patrol passes from view.
April 30 The 14th and 18th Régiment Coloniale Parachutiste and the Parachute Commando Group are disbanded.
May 4 The police and the Army in Algeria are reorganized.
May 4 The Algiers Bar Association is dissolved.
May 6 General Zeller surrenders to the military authorities in Algiers.
May 10 The French Government and the FLN announce that negotiations will open on May 20th in Evian.
May 13 Publication of three Algiers newspapers is suspended.
May 19 The OAS sets off 19 bombs in Algiers.
May 20 Negotiations between France and the FLN open in Evian.
May 20 France decides to undertake a unilateral truce.
May 20 6,000 FLN internees are released.
May 22 To counterbalance the FLN slogan, “The suitcase or the coffin”, the OAS adopts the propaganda slogan, “Neither suitcase nor coffin, one country.”
May 29 The trial of Generals Challe and Zeller begins.
May 31 Algiers commissioner Avoury, a specialist in the anti-OAS fight, is killed by an OAS commando.
June 1 The number of rebels put out of action during the preceding month is placed at 1,200.
June 2 Two hundred captains boo a colonel who hailed the failure of the Algiers Putsch off stage at Camp Valdahon in Doubs, France.
June 7 General Charles Ailleret replaces General Gambiez as Inter-Army High Commander.
June 9 Four people are killed and 54 wounded in FLN attacks throughout Algiers.
June 13 The Evian talks break down over the intransigence of the FLN in regards to sovereignty over the Sahara and departure of Europeans from Algeria.
June 15 Colonel Godard establishes the organizational structure of the OAS.
June 20 The Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic calls to a resumption of negotiations.
June 20 General Nicot is sentenced to 12 years in prison for participating in the putsch.
June 21 General Gouraud is sentence to 7 years in prison for participating in the putsch.
June 28 President de Gaulle, speaking in Verdun, declares, “The Algerian War is finished. There remains the terrorism.” June 28
Colonel Lecomte is sentenced to 8 years in prison for participating in the putsch.
July 1 Moslems in Algiers go on strike.
July 5 Pro-FLN Moslems demonstrate in protest of French refusals to recognize the Sahara as a part of Algeria. Clashes with the forces of public order leave 81 demonstrators dead and 266 wounded.
July 11 Sentencing is concluded for participants in the Algiers Putsch:
Generals Salan, Jouhaud and Gardy and Colonels Argoud, Broizat, Gardes, Godard, Lacheroy and Commandant Vailly are sentenced in absentia to death.
Captain Sergent is sentenced in absentia to 20 years in prison.
Generals Challe, Zeller and Bigot – 15 years
General Nicot – 12 years
Generals Faure and Vaudrey and Commandant Hélie Denoix de Saint-Marc – 10 years
Colonels Masselot and Lecomte – 8 years
General Gouraud, Colonels de La Chapelle and Bernard Sabouret Garat de Nedde – 7 years
July 14 OAS attacks resume.
July 20 During a skirmish between the 22nd BCA and a rebel band near Bouira, Colonel Si Salah is found in shackles among the wounded. An official statement announces that he was killed as a combatant.
July 20 Negotiations with the FLN resume in Lugrin.
July 28 The Lugrin talks breakdown with the FLN holding firm on two points, sovereignty over the Sahara and guarantees to Algeria’s Europeans.
August 1 Algerian Affairs Minister Louis Joxe declares, “No matter what comes, we will all work so that the men and women of Algeria can build their future together.” But then emphasizes, “I am well constrained to ask what the declarations of intent in which our negotiators make the future of Algeria’s Europeans gleam with reference to association with France....are worth.”
August 2 Coup de Fréjac: The Premier warns the cabinet, “If the Government does not prepare for the evacuation and resettlement of the Pied Noirs in metropolitan France, it will bare a heavy responsibility.” The ministers refuse to listen. According to Boulin, “serious studies” show that the departure of 200,000 can be expected in three months following independence. In fact, more than a million leave by during the next year.
August 5 The one o’clock news program on Algiers television is interrupted by the first OAS pirate broadcast.
August 6 The 4th Congress of the FLN opens in Tripoli with 2 European sympathizers, Locusol (who will be killed by the OAS) and Chaulet, in attendance.
August 8 Si Mohamed, the last FLN protagonist of the Si Salah affair, is killed during the capture of the FLN radio station in a suburb of Blida by the 11th Shock Batallion.
August 16 The unilateral truce ends.
August 20 General Jouhaud takes charge of the OAS in the Oran region.
August 21 The first edition of an OAS pirate newspaper is published in Algiers. During the night an armed gang enters the printing plant of l’Écho d'Alger and replaces the paper’s frontpage with one composed by the OAS. Similar operations are repeated in Oran and Constantine.
August 27 Yusef Ben Khedda replaces Ferhat Abbas as leader of the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic.
August 28 Representatives of the OAS meet secretly with those of the Algerian Democratic Action Front in suburban Oran.
August 31 A private radio station reports that the French special services have been in contact with the Oran OAS.
August 31 Commissioner Ouamri, leader of the anti-OAS brigades, is killed by an OAS commando.
September 5 President de Gaulle accepts the FLN position that the Sahara is an integral part of Algeria.
September 7 Maurice Gingembre, liaison agent for the OAS, is arrest on an airplane flying between Paris and Algiers by Colonel Debrosse of the Gendarmerie Mobile, while in possession of numerous documents which lead to the arrest of several members of the OAS hierarchy.
September 8 President de Gaulle survives an assassination attempt. A remote controlled bomb explodes on the Pont sur Seine as the General passes while en route to his home in Colombey-les-deux-églises. The attackers, who used a personal vehicle with the true plates, are quickly rounded up but the organizer, Colonel Bastien Theiry, will not be arrested until after another attack at Petit Clamart.
September 9 Authorities acting on information provided by the documents seized from Gingembre, arrest Colonel de Blinière and generals Vanuxem and Crèvecoeur.
September 21 The trial of General Faure for his role in the Paris Putsch ends. Faure is sentenced to 10 years in prison.
September 21 A new OAS pirate broadcast on the television delivers instructions for actions to be taken on the 23rd, 25th and 28th of September.
September 22 At 10 p.m. , in accordance with instructions from the OAS, Europeans take to the balconies and bang out the message, “Al-gé-rie-fran-çaise” on pots and pans in a noisy show of support.
September 23 At 6 p.m., on instruction of the OAS, a half hour of silence decends on the European quarters of Algiers. Window curtains and shutters are closed. No one speaks. Cars are parked. Pedestrians stand immobile in the doorways. At 6:30, a bugle sounds to announce the end of the demonstration.
September 25 During the night, hundreds of OAS signs, banners and Tricolors are hung from public buildings, harbor cranes and lampposts throughout Algeria.
September 25 Commissioner Alex Goldenberg, specialist in the anti-OAS fight, is killed by an OAS commando.
September 28 At noon, on instructions from the OAS, all civilian vehicles stop where they are, causing a massive traffic jam that paralyzes Algiers for half an hour.
October 1 Colonel Ahmed Rafa, a French citizen of native origin is promoted to General. He is request to take command of the Force Locale (ATO) but declines declaring that he is French and will remain so until death.
October 2 The OAS begins an offensive against the European milieu (mafia). Nearly all the Algiers gangsters will be killed.
October 5 The curfew for Algerian Moslems is reestablished in Paris.
October 9 At 1 p.m., the OAS takes over the television transmitter at Ouled Fayet near Algiers and broadcast the first of several pirate programs.
October 17 At the call of Maâmar Kaci, chief of FLN Wilaya I in France, 20 to 25,000 Moslem workers, immigrants from Algeria, demonstrate in Paris for an Algerian Algeria and the release of Ahmed Ben Bella. Clashes with the police leave a number of demonstrators dead or injured.
October 18 The FLN organizes further demonstrations in Paris to protest the police brutality of the previous day.
October 19 Five hundred of the 11,540 FLN sympathizers arrested during the Paris demonstrations are deported to Algeria.
October 20 The FLN launches 6 grenade attacks on the cafés of El Biar and at Maison Carrée near Algiers. One person is killed and 7 wounded when an FLN grenade explodes in the Café Château Neuf in El Biar at 8:10 p.m. Five minutes later a grenade explodes in the Café du Progrès wounding three people. Several more people are injured when a third grenade is thrown into the café a Saint Raphaël at 8:17 p.m.
October 21 The SDECE ceases support for the FAAD, with the militants threatened by the FLN, they have no other choice than to rally to the OAS.
October 25 François Mitterrand accuses the Government of seeking to negotiate a settlement to the Algerian crisis with parties other then the FLN during an address to the National Assembly.
October 31 Commissioner Louis Pelissier is killed by an OAS commando.
November 1 Twenty five people are killed and 100 injured in demonstrations organized by the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic and the Army of National Liberation to mark the 7th anniversary of the uprising.
November 1 Ahmed Ben Bella and his compatriots begin a hunger strike demanding they be treated as political prisoners.
November 7 The French nuclear testing program moves to the Oasis Military Test Center, an underground site, at In Ecker in the Hoggar region about 150 kilometers north of Tamanrassett. The first test conducted there is codenamed Agate.
November 7 The Mouvement Pour la Communauté (MPC) becomes the Mouvement Pour la Cooperation but its real goal is to fight against the OAS.
November 9 The National Assembly rejects the Valentin Amendment aka the Salan Amendment which calls for a reduction in term of service to 18 months for conscripts from metropolitan France and the mobilization of 8 military classes in Algeria.
November 10 René Joubert, commissioner of the anti-OAS brigades, is killed in a barroom by an OAS commando while celebrating his impending departure from Algeria.
November 12 Four policemen are killed during an attack by OAS commandos in the Rue Michelet, Algiers.
November 13 Members of the MPC bomb three downtown Algiers bars suspected of being gathering spots for the OAS.
November 13 A patrol of legionnaires is ambushed near Géryville. Five men are killed and seven are wounded.
November 14 Ahmed Ben Bella and his fellow prisoners are transferred to Garches.
November 15 The MPC bombs three more downtown Algiers bars during the afternoon.
November 20 Ahmed Ben Bella and his fellow prisoners end their hunger strike.
November 20 William Levy, Chairman of the Algiers section of the French Socialist Party (SFIO), is killed by an OAS commando.
November 22 The OAS sets off 18 explosive devices in Paris during the night.
November 27 FLN member Gueboub Boualen murders suspected OAS supporter Roger Falip.
December 4 Abdherramane Farés, future President of the Provisional Executive, is arrested on suspicion of collecting funds for the FLN.
December 4 A pro-French demonstration in Constantine draws 5,000 people.
December 5 The anti-OAS SAC and MPC brigades arrive in Algiers. At the same time, 200 police inspectors assigned to “Mission C” arrive by special plane and establish headquarters at the police academy in Hussein Dey near Algiers.
December 6 The cabinet issues a decree disbanding the OAS.
December 7 The OAS set off a small plastic bomb outside Saint Joseph’s church in Bab el Oued to protest the pastor’s pro-FLN position. December 8
Captain Abdelaziz Bouteflika, under a false Moroccan identity, visits the prisoners at the Château d'Aulnoy, to persuade Ben Bella to side with Boumediene against the GPRA’s willingness to negotiate.
December 9 French and FLN negotiators meet at Lons le Saunier in the Jura.
December 12 President de Gaulle issues an amnesty to 2,500 FLN members.
December 14 The OAS sinks an LST housing a French military radio relay transmitter in the port of Algiers. A sailor is killed in the explosion.
December 15 Alain Peyrefitte formulates a plan for the partition of Algeria at the request of President de Gaulle.
December 16 Colonel Ranson, head of military intelligence in Oran, is killed by the OAS.
December 19 Paris police break up an anti-OAS demonstration injuring hundreds among the crowd of nearly 20,000.
December 24 The OAS attacks the Algiers headquarters of the SAC and MPC anti-OAS brigades with bazookas and automatic weapons.
December 26 A repatriation law is enacted. 969,216 residents of Algeria become eligible for repatriation to metropolitan France.
December 28 Twenty one French soldiers are killed in an ambush.
1962 January 3 Philippe Castille, perpetrator of the bazooka attack on General Salan in 1957, who joined the OAS after escaping, is arrested once more in Paris.
January 3 Nineteen people are killed during the night in clashes between the OAS and FLN at Oran.
January 4 A lieutenant from the 43rd Infantry Regiment deserts to the OAS with his company’s arms.
January 4 An OAS terrorist cell attacks the Paris headquarters of the Communist Party.
January 7 An OAS cell enters the Satory Army base and seizes arms and ammunition.
January 8 Colonel Château Jaubert rejoins the OAS and takes command of the organization in Constantine.
January 9 Father Davezies trial on charges of aiding the FLN opens.
January 11 FLN and OAS terrorist stage 8 attacks in Algiers.
January 18 OAS terrorists launch 17 attacks in Paris.
January 19 Two leaders of the Algiers OAS are executed by their peers for contacting the French authorities to arrange negotiations on Alain Peyrefitte’s partition plan.
January 22 The French Foreign Office on the Quai d'Orsay, Paris is bombed by the OAS.
January 24 Algiers observes a five minute silence in memory of those who died on the barricades on January 24, 1960. At 6 o’clock in the afternoon on instructions from the OAS, the city’s European quarters fall silent.
January 25 Military posts in the Bled are closed and the troops withdraw to the coast.
January 27 Negotiations between the French and the FLN resume.
January 29 La Villa d'Andréa, command post of the counter-terrorist SAC in Algiers, is destroyed by an OAS bomb. The blast kills 21 people including 2 OAS prisoners being held in the cellar of the collapsed building.
February 1 A new SAC counter-terrorist squad arrives in Algiers and sets up headquarters in La Villa Raja.
February 2 Colonel Godard and Captain Pierre Sergent (OAS) are sentenced to 20 years in prison in absentia.
February 7 Algiers Gendarmes Mobiles, acting on intelligence reports, kill Captain Pivain of the OAS.
February 7 An FLN commando machine guns the entrance to the Lycée Bugeaud in Algiers killing one high school student and wound several others.
February 8 An anti-OAS demonstration organized by the Communist Party draws 10,000 protesters into the Place de la Bastille, Paris. Police charge the crowd killing 8 people including 3 women and a 16 year old boy who vainly sought refuge in the Charonne Metro station. 140 police are injured in the melee.
February 10 Si Azedine reorganizes the Algiers Autonomous Zone which had been broken up by General Massu.
February 11 A week of negotiation between French officials and the FLN begins in Rousses. The French negotiators argue unsuccessfully in favor of granting the benefits of Algerian citizenship to the Pied Noirs.
February 14 Police and OAS supporters clash in Algiers and Oran.
February 15 OAS commandos attack La Villa Raja headquarters of the SAC with bazookas and automatic weapons killing a number of the counter-terrorists and wound several more. Several of the wounded SAC men are killed by another OAS gang when their car arrives at Maillot hospital in Bab el Oued.
February 19 The OAS bombs the FLN camp at Oujda, Morocco using two T28 planes taken from a French base at Senia near Oran.
February 22 FLN attacks on European civilians in Algiers leave 23 people dead.
February 24 Delegate General Jean Morin instructs the prefects by telegram, “The French Republic will uphold the French nationality of all in Algeria who currently possess it and have not expressed the desire to renounce it.” February 25
The OAS kills 68 Moslem civilians in retaliation for the February 22nd FLN attacks that left 23 Europeans dead. A 4 p.m. curfew is imposed on Algiers.
February 27 OAS commandos attack the Maison Carré barracks of the Gendarmes Mobiles in suburban Algiers destroying the fuel and munitions depots.
February 27 The French Government information office issues a bulletin on the cease fire indicating that, “Nearly all the French will remain in Algeria after independence.”
March 1 Two OAS car bombs explode in the Moslem quarter of Oran killing 23 people and wounding 32.
March 2 OAS commandos enter the prisons at Algiers and Oran and kill several FLN prisoners.
March 2 A government circular specifies that on the day after the cease fire begins, two categories of people will be amnestied: Algerian Moslems who have participated in the FLN uprising and members of the French military who have committed infractions during the course of their missions.
March 5 The OAS sets off over 130 explosive devices in Algiers during the night.
March 7 The Evian Negotiations begin.
March 11 Measures to be taken for the reception and classification of French repatriates in Metropolitan France are officially published.
March 13 Michel Debré responding to General Ailleret’s question asking whether Algerian Moslems will lose their French citizenship automatically declares; "Yes, if they remain in Algeria but if they come to metropolitan France they will be able to reclaim French nationality and to benefit from the assistance to the repatriates."
March 15 Berber writer Mouloud Feraoun is killed along with 5 other people by the OAS at Beau-fraisier between Bab el Oued and El Biar.
March 16 A gang holds up the Bata shoe warehouse in Bab el Oued and carries off several hundred pairs for the OAS maquis.
March 18 The Evian Accords are signed by Belkacem Krim for the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic and Louis Joxe, Robert Buron and Jean de Broglie for France.
March 18 The FLN becomes a legal political party.
March 19 A ceasefire is declared in Algeria at noon.
March 19 Abderhamane Farés, FLN treasurer, is freed from prison.
March 19 Christian Fouchet is named French High Commissioner in Algeria.
March 20 Abderahman Farés is nominated to be President of the Provisional Executive in Algeria.
March 20 Ahmed Ben Bella and his fellow prisoners are released from detention at Aulnoy.
March 20 Algiers and Oran are paralyzed for 24 hours by an OAS general strike.
March 20 In Médéa, an officer of the ALN declares publicly: "OAS or no OAS, we do not want any more a French in Algeria."
March 21 The OAS issues an ultimatum to the Army prohibiting the later from armed entry into Bab el Oued as of March 23rd at midnight.
March 21 Clashes between Harkis and the FLN at Saint Denis du Sig leave 100 people dead.
March 22 The OAS fires 6 mortar shells on the Place du Gouvernement below the Algiers Casbah killing 24 and wounding 55 Moslem civilians.
March 22 An OAS squadron attacks an armored patrol of the Gendarmrie Mobile in the heart of Algiers. Eighteen policemen are killed and 25 others wounded.
March 22 An amnesty decree for FLN convicts is published.
March 23 An OAS gang robs the Bank of Algeria at Oran of 2,140,315,000 old francs.
March 23 In Bab el Oued several military patrols are disarmed by commandos of the OAS. A shootout between an Army patrol and rebels manning an OAS checkpoint on the Place Desaix leaves dead and wounded among the soldiers. At noon the Army imposes a total blockade on the quarter and calls in tanks and air support during the ensuing battle which leaves 17 dead and 97 wounded from the ranks of the forces of public order. Among the rebels and civilian populace, 18 are killed and 55 wounded. The inhabitants of Bab el Oued, who return to work are stopped and interned in the camps recently emptied of prisoners FLN.
March 24 During the night, nearly 20,000 police surround Bab el Oued. A permanent curfew is imposed on the quarter. All telecommunications are cutoff. The residents are confined to their home except for women who are allowed out for one hour between 9 and 10 a.m. The Army is ordered to fire without warning on violators.
March 24 At 8 a.m. with many of the building terraces of Bab el Oued occupied by soldiers, a shot is fired from a building on the Rue Mizon at police patrol in the street below. The gendarmes respond by showering the surrounding buildings will heavy machinegun fire for over half an hour.
March 25 Algerian deputies Abdesselam and Djebour receive a message from the provisional executive declaring them servants of colonialism and announcing their death sentence issued by the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic.
March 25 General Jouhaud, Naval Lieutenant Guillaume and Commander Camelin are arrested in Oran.
March 26 A massive demonstration of support for the besieged quarter of Bab el Oued is organized in Algiers. The procession enters the Rue d’Isly proceeded by the Tricolor and la Marseillaise where a regiment of Tirailleurs Algériens opens fire on the demonstrators killing 46 and wounding 200. March 27
A United Nations report estimates that 263,000 Algerian Moslems face political persecution if Algeria becomes independent.
March 28 An OAS maquis is established in the Ouarsenis.
March 29 The blockade of Bab el Oued is lifted. 7,500 apartments were search and ransacked. 15,000 residents have been stopped and interned for identity checks.
March 30 The OAS establishes a National Council of the Resistance (CNR) under the presidency of Georges Bidault.
March 31 Desertions from the French Army total 1,670 for the month of March.
April 1 Si Azedine, head of the FLN Algiers Autonomous Zone, delivers safe conduct passes to the French Army allowing its patrols to enter the Moslem quarters of the city.
April 2 The Europeans population begins a mass exodus from the Algeria. They must have an exit visa and wait several days for a boat or plane to leave the country at their own expense, the French government having not foreseen the need to finance resettlement. The Pied Noirs leave behind 600 cemeteries and 300,000 graves.
April 5 The 15,000 residents of Bab el Oued who were arrested during the blockade are released.
April 7 Lieutenant Roger Degueldre, head of the OAS Delta commandos is arrested in Algiers.
April 7 Louis Joxe addresses a note to the French High Commissioner Christian Fouchet, “We should not hesitate to gather and protect those (Harkis) who would be threatened and if necessary transport them to the metropolis.” April 8
The Evian Accords are approved by 90.7% of the voters in a referendum conducted in metropolitan France.
April 9 The OAS launches a grenade and mortar attack on the Summer Palace at Algiers around 11 p.m.
April 10 The ATO, a local force composed of armed Moslems, begins patrolling and making stops for identity checks. They will not enter the European strongholds of Bab el Oued in Algiers, Ekmule in Oran or Saint Eugene until June 25th.
April 11 After a brief period of success, the OAS guerrillas in the Ouarsenis region are wiped out by the FLN and the French Army which enjoys the advantage of air support. A captain, 7 officers and 46 men of the OAS are captured.
April 12 The FLN announces the first mass expulsion of Europeans. Nearly 6,000 are to be displaced.
April 13 Abderahmane Farès presides over the first meeting of the provisional executive council.
April 13 General Edmond Jouhaud is found guilty and sentenced to death.
April 14 The Government of Premier Michel Debré resigns.
April 14 Two French soldiers are killed and 3 wounded in a skirmish with FLN rebels near Géryville. Twenty six rebels are killed and 5 captured.
April 17 General Fourquet replaces General Ailleret as Commander in Chief of the Army in Algeria.
April 19 The Cabinet rejects a proposal for a general repatriation of the Harkis.
April 20 General Salan and Captain Jean Ferrandi (OAS) are arrested in Algiers.
April 26 Premier Georges Pompidou assures the National Assembly that, “All necessary provisions will be taken to prevent reprisals after Algeria gains independence.” April 29
The Government of Georges Pompidou takes office.
May 1 Beryl, the second underground nuclear test at the Oasis Military Test Center, ends with an accidental release of radioactive fallout to the atmosphere. The French will continue to test nuclear weapons at the site for another three years before moving the program to Muaroa Atoll in Polynesia.
May 2 A car bomb explodes in the port of Algiers killing 60 and wounding 135 Moslem dockworkers.
May 5 André Canal aka Le Monocle, head of the OAS in metropolitan France, is arrested.
May 6 An OAS commando opens the valves of a gasoline tanker parked on the heights above the Algiers Casbah. Quick intervention by European firemen saves the Moslem quarter from conflagration.
May 8 A National Assembly deputy reports that General Katz, military commander of Oran, has remarked, “Give me a battalion of the ALN and I will reduce the OAS to Oran.” May 11
Terrorist attacks in Algiers during the preceding week have claimed the lives of 230 Moslems and 11 Europeans.
May 12 Army officers are ordered not to take individual initiative in matters related to the repatriation of the Harkis.
May 13 The OAS distributes forged exit visas to Europeans allowing them to leave Algeria.
May 14 FLN commandos stage grenade and machine pistol attacks against several Algiers bars. Seventeen European civilians are killed and 35 wounded.
May 15 OAS commandos respond to the FLN attacks by killing 56 and wounding 37 Moslem civilians in Algiers. A 6 p.m. curfew is imposed on the city.
May 15 The trial of OAS leader General Raoul Salan begins in Paris.
May 16 Raoul Salan delivers his opening remarks to the tribunal declaring, “I need only render an account to those who suffered and died for having believed in a disavowed word and betrayed engagements.” May 16
Si Azedine, leader of the Algiers Autonomous Zone, holds a press conference to announce that the FLN will continue attacks on Europeans as long as the OAS continues to attack Moslems.
May 17 The 7th Régiment de Tirailleurs Algériens leaves Algeria and is stationed at Épinal, France.
May 18 François Mitterrand, testifying at the trial of Raoul Salan, blames Michel Debré for the 1957 bazooka attack on the General. Debré denies the allegation.
May 18 Jean Jacques Susini meets with Abderahman Farés, President of the Provisional Executive in Algeria, to discuss an OAS – FLN ceasefire.
May 18 Bachaga Boualam leaves Algeria for France with his Harkis and their dependents.
May 20 One hundred twelve Pied Noir and pro-French Algerian police officers are transferred to metropolitan France at the request of the FLN.
May 22 The freedom to leave Algeria without an exit permit is granted to the women, children under the age of 19 years and men over the age of 65.
May 23 General Salan is found guilty by the High Court and sentenced to life in prison.
May 26 The first reception camp for Harkis in metropolitan France is opened at Larzac.
May 27 An ordinance dissolves the High Court. The move follows criticism of the Court’s lenient sentence in the Salan case. May 30
The Court of Military Justice is instituted.
May 31 OAS leader Jean Jacques Susini declares a truce.
June 3 Twenty seven farm workers including 8 Europeans are kidnapped by the FLN at Birtoutat, 20 kilometers from Algiers.
June 4 The Court of Cassation rejects the appeal of General Edmond Jouhaud and Sergeant Albert Dovecar who are sentenced to death for their participation in the OAS.
June 5 From his prison General Jouhaud, calls for an end to OAS operations.
June 7 Two OAS members; Sergeant Albert Dovecar and Claude Piegts, a Pied Noir civilian, are shot by a firing squad at the Fort of Trou d'Enfer.
June 11 General de Larminat, Gaullist President of the Court of Military Justice, who believes the soldiers cause is lost, commits suicide so as, “not to have to condemn brilliant soldiers.”
June 11 OAS attacks resume. The University of Algiers library is destroyed in a fire.
June 14 General Ginestet and Colonel Mabille are killed by the OAS in Oran.
June 15 An OAS truck bomb claims 40 civilian and military casualties and heavily damages the Algiers city hall.
June 17 Jean Jacques Susini of the OAS and Chouki Moustefai of the FLN reach an accord.
June 19 General Salan, imprisoned at Fresnes, approves the OAS - FLN accords.
June 19 The curfew is lifted in Algeria.
June 20 Eighteen hundred Moslem auxiliaries replace 1,500 European police.
June 20 Ahmed Ben Bella and Houari Boumediene reject the OAS – FLN accords. June 21
The forces of public order are prohibited from intervening in favor of persons threatened by the new regime in Algeria.
June 25 The OAS sets fire to the British Petroleum fuel depot in the port of Oran. The fire burns for three days.
June 26 Belkacem Krim, who favors allowing the European colons to remain in Algeria, clashes with Ahmed Ben Bella and Houari Boumedienne, who join Yuossef Ben Khedda in opposition.
June 27 Abderahmane Farès' provisional executive resigns.
June 27 The last OAS pirate broadcast appears on Oran televisions.
June 27 General Paul Gardy, who replaced Raoul Salan as leader of the OAS, leaves Algeria for Spain with his staff. OAS resistance ends in Algeria.
June 28 Lieutenant Roger Degueldre, leader of the OAS Delta commandos, is sentenced to death by the Court of Military Justice.
June 30 Ahmed Ben Bella breaks with the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic.
July 1 Algerians approve the Evian Accords in a referendum by a vote of 5,993,754 to 16,478.
July 1 Messali Hadj dissolves the MNA and announces the formation of the Party of the Algerian People (PPA) with the professed aim, “to perfect the independence of Algeria and to build the sovereign, democratic and social Algerian Republic.” He will not be permitted to return to Algeria.
July 3 France recognizes Algerian independence. National identity cards issued in Algeria are declared void. French Algerians of indigenous origin automatically become Algerian citizens. Those wishing to retain French citizenship must leave Algeria and request reintegration from a court in France.
July 4 The Provisional Government of the Republic of Algeria assumes power in Algiers under the presidency of Youssef Ben Khedda.
July 4 Moslem army units throughout Algeria desert en masse taking arms and equipment with them.
July 5 Algerian independence is proclaimed by the Provisional Government after a two day delay so that the declaration would coincide with the 132nd anniversary of the French conquest of Algiers.
July 5 The French National Assembly revokes the parliamentary immunity of Georges Bidault, the President of the CNR.
July 5 European civilians are massacred in Oran. Nearly a thousand people are killed, injured or disappear. French troops obey General Katz’s orders not to intervene.
July 5 The headline of France Soir proclaims, “AFTER 132 YEARS ALGERIA IS NO LONGER FRENCH”.
TIME LINE 1958 to 1960
Marxists Internet Archive: History Archive: Algeria
Principal Dates and Time Line of
Algeria 1958-1960
From Timelines of History
1958 January 2 Four people are killed in terrorist attacks at Sidi Bel Abbes. Salesman Isaac Azoulay and Sadia Portache are stabbed to death in separate incidents. Mr. Korchia, the proprietor, and customer Mireille Lopez are killed when a grenade is thrown into a grocery store.
January 5 FLN training camps are established in Egypt, Syria, Libya and Iraq adding to those already existing in Morocco and Tunisia.
January 6 Five people including two children ages 6 and 8 are wounded by a grenade explosion on bus in Bône.
January 10 The 2nd Régiment Parachustiste Coloniale loses 11 men including 3 who die from exposure during an operation in the mountains of Wilaya 4.
January 10 Two automobiles are machine-gunned in Tlemcen. André Emile Thibault, a corporate manager and assistant to the Mayor of Eugène-Etienne and 18 year old Emile Dinae are killed.
January 11 ALN units based at Sakiet Sidi Youssef, Tunisia cross the border and annihilate a French patrol. The rebels kill 14 French soldiers and take 5 prisoners before returning to Tunisia.
January 16 Ten people are wounded when a bomb explodes in the Préfecture in Melun, France. The device was planted near an office issuing visas for travel to North Africa.
January 17 A French airplane is shot down over the ALN base at Sakiet Sidi Youssef, Tunisia.
January 18 The Slovenia, a Yugoslav freighter carrying 150 tons of arms and ammunition, is seized by the French Navy off Oran.
January 19 Four people are killed and 41 wounded when a bomb explodes on the terrace of the Café de France in Sidi Bel Abbes.
January 20 Mr. Mallet and his 10 year old daughter Marie France are killed in a drive by machine-gunning at Sidi Bel Abbes. Mrs. Mallet and 7 year old Eliane Soussan are wounded in the attack.
January 20 Gendarme Delecamphe and his 6 year old son Gérard are killed when their car is ambushed along the highway in Guelma.
January 20 Two men are killed when a convoy of miners is attacked at Beni Saf.
January 22 The UGEMA (General Union of Algerian Moslem Students) which supports the FLN is dissolved.
January 22 Lieutenant Dubos, a prisoner of the FLN is shot near Bougie.
January 24 Colonel Jeanpierre’s 1st Régiment Étranger Parachustistes launches an operation against rebels on the Tunisian border. Five legionnaires and 92 rebels are killed in the ensuing battle. January 26
Charbit Saïd, a 52 year old tailor, is killed and 8 others are wounded by the explosion of a delayed action bomb in Beni Saf.
January 26 Seven people including 6 soldiers are killed when their truck hits a mine near Batna.
January 28 Abdelkader, the 22 year old son of Bachagha Boualam, is murdered by the rebels in the Ouarsenis.
January 31 FLN income from voluntary and extorted contributions reaches 600 million francs per month.
January 31 Casimir Chini, age 75, is shot in the head and killed at Blida.
February 2 Forty one people are wounded in a bomb attack on the Monoprix store in Constantine.
February 2 Madame Boyer is killed beside her husband, a mechanic, on the road to the Planetti Farm near Bougie.
February 4 The eastern outpost of the 8th Régiment Spahis Algérien is overtaken by FLN rebels. The Moslem soldiers are executed. The 15 Europeans are taken prisoner.
February 5 An FLN bomb explodes outside the French National Assembly in Paris.
February 6 Two people are killed in an exchange of shots between Algerians in Paris.
February 6 A cache of bombs and firearms is uncovered in the home of a Moslem in Lyon, France.
February 6 Seven members of an FLN tribunal are arrested in Douai, France.
February 8 French aircraft bomb the Tunisian village of Sakiet Sidi Youssef in reprisal against the FLN which flees to Tunisia after attacks against the French in Algeria. Sixty nine people are killed including several women and children.
February 9 Michel de Cara, his wife and two children are kidnapped and murdered by a band of rebels at Sidi Bel Abbes.
February 14 Seven people are injured when a missile hits the Municipal Casino in Constantine.
February 16 Industrialist Joseph Martinez is murdered by the terrorists at Lourmel.
February 21 Paris police arrest 277 Algerian Moslems including 102 members of the FLN’s network in the southern zone of the city. February 21
Sheik Ahmed Ameziane Mohamed, Iman of the Birmandreis Mosque, is killed by a terrorist in Algiers.
February 21 A 44 year old bridge and road worker is murdered in El Ouricia.
February 28 Tunisian President Habib Bourguiba orders a dozen French nationals expelled from Bizerté.
February 28 José Fuentes, Jean and Henri Grimal are murdered on their farms near Oran.
March 3 The first tanker of Saharan crude oil leaves Philippeville for metropolitan France.
March 3 Eight members of a Moslem family including four women and two children are massacred by a rebel gang at Metcha Chabersas near Constantine.
March 3 René Gros and Hamalaoui Bendjema are kidnapped during an attack on a convoy in the Constantine.
March 13 A large convoy carrying arms to the rebels is intercepted at Maillot.
March 14 The Paris Prefect of Police, Lahillonne, resigns and is replace by Maurice Papon, the Prefect of Constantine.
March 16 A French company is ambushed near Oued Foda in the Ouarsenis. The mutilated bodies of 28 men are recovered later. Five others have disappeared.
March 17 A combined air and ground assault on rebel bases along the Tunisian border kills 122 insurgents.
March 17 The Department of Bougie is organized around the city and four neighboring arrondissements taken from the Department of Sétif and the arrondissement of Djidjelli taken from the Department of Constantine.
March 17 The Department of Saïda is formed from the Telagh arrondisement of Oran, the Saïda arrondissement of Tiaret and the arrondissements of Ain Sefra, Géryville and Mecheria in the Saharan territories.
March 17 The arrondissement of Barika is taken from the Department of Batna and attached to that of Sétif.
March 17 The arrondissement of Tebessa is taken from the Department of Bône and attached to that of Batna.
March 19 Tunisian President Habib Bourguiba declares, “There are no Algerian rebels on Tunisian territory.” March 19
A grenade is thrown into a jewelry store in Morsott. One woman is killed and another wounded.
March 20 Twenty three men from the 18th Régiment Parachustiste Coloniale are killed in an ambush.
March 22 Colonel Si Cherif and his Harkis inflict heavy loses on the FLN during an operation in the Djebel Belgroune.
March 22 Charles Cartannaz, a 67 year old waiter at the Café Amouchas in Sétif, is murdered in his establishment.
March 22 Mathieu Rubio is killed in an attack on his farm near Oran. Rebels slit the 70 year old farmer’s throat. March 24
An FLN tribunal tries two retired Indigenous Affairs Officers in absentia and sentences them to death.
March 25 Raymond Lupinacci, head of cultivation on the Oued Kebir Estate near Bône, is cut down by machinegun fire.
March 26 Thirty one people including 11 children are killed when a terrorist throws a bomb into a crowd watching the motorcade of newly arrived Prefect Mr. Chapel pass along the Rue Caraman in Constantine.
March 30 Sixteen people including 10 children are wounded when a grenade is thrown into a market at Palestro.
March 30 A grenade explosion injures 14 people in Constantine.
March 30 The Martinez farm near Mascara is looted. Mr. Martinez, his wife and two daughters, ages 9 and 12, are kidnapped.
March 31 The headquarters of the Radical Republican and Radical Socialist Party in Montebello is heavily damaged by a bomb explosion.
April 1 Berki Aissa, President of the War Veterans Association, is mortally wounded by a bullet at Ain Beida.
April 1 Bernard Sadeler, Mayor of Clauzel, is killed in Guelma.
April 1 Mr. Montiel, a Cherchel farm manager, is murdered in front of his wife and 13 year old son.
April 5 Thirty people, 5 Europeans and 25 Moslems, are wounded in a grenade attack at Constantine.
April 5 A grenade explosion in Sétif wounds 4 Europeans and a Moslem.
April 8 Moulay Mostefa, Vice President of the Délégation Spéciale in Médéa is mortally wounded.
April 8 The President of the Délégation Spéciale in Chetouane is found murdered.
April 9 Félix Vallat, President of the Délégation Spéciale in Thiersville, and his wife are killed and two of their three children are wounded in an attack at Mascara.
April 9 A grenade attack in Jemmapes injures 3 European civilians and a soldier.
April 10 Sixty three year old farm manager Bernard Barcello is killed in field near Douaouda.
April 12 Six members of the Lambese Délégation Spéciale are savagely murdered in Batna.
April 13 A grenade explosion in Constantine injures 12 people.
April 13 Tlemcen landowner Jean Segura and his son Jean Antoine are killed along the road to Oran. The pregnant wife of the later is kidnapped by the killers.
April 14 Eight Algerian football players leave France to form an FLN team and go on a propaganda tour.
April 15 The Government of Premier Félix Gaillard resigns.
April 15 Raymond Notella, an engineer for Electricité et Gaz d’Algérie, is killed in a workshop at Djendjen. April 15
Farmer Clément Greck is killed by a rifle shot at Morris.
April 15 Farmer Jean Augier is killed while driving his car near Djidjelli.
April 17 A grenade is thrown at the American consulate in Algiers by members of the Mouvement Indépendant Français, a European counterterrorist organization.
April 20 Colonel Bigeard’s School of Subversive Warfare opens at Jeanne d'Arc near Philippeville. April 21
A Birtouta café owner is wounded by a terrorist grenade.
April 24 Madame Martin Gabriel is killed with an ax on her farm near Mascara.
April 25 A bomb explosion outside the Sub- Préfecture in Bayonne, France is followed by an attack against the central police station.
April 25 Three French conscripts captured by the FLN during an ambush on November 1, 1956 are executed in Tunisia.
April 26 70,000 people march in the streets of Algiers demanding a government of public safety.
April 27 A 1,000 man strong battalion of the ALN crosses the electrified fence along the Tunisian border south of Souk Ahras. A week long battle with French forces ends with 673 rebels killed and 45 captured. French losses total 87 dead and 131 wounded.
April 28 Kobus, the leader of Force K, a Moslem guerilla unit hostile to the FLN and armed by the French, is killed by his adjutant Ismail Rachid Rabah, who deserts to the FLN carrying the head of Kobus and 500 members of the battalion along with him. A 150 man company remains with the French.
April 28 Fellaghas massacre and burn 12 Moslems including 4 children ages 2 years to 14 months near downtown Tiaret.
April 28 Thirteen people are injured by a grenade explosion in front of the Hôtel des Palmiers in Orléansville.
April 29 The soldiers of Force K who deserted to Wilaya 4 are executed by the FLN.
April 29 The chief of military medicine for Bône, Doctor Colonel Andre, Doctor Lieutenant Gasnier and Nurse Chambou are wounded when their car is machine-gunned at Beni Ramasses.
April 30 The poster and petition campaign calling for General de Gaulle's return to power begins.
May 1 The French Army in Algeria numbers 384,000 men.
May 1 A young teacher, Jean Curtil, disappears while visiting the Roman ruins near Constantine.
May 2 Five members of Délégations Spéciale in Orania and loyal Moslems are savagely murdered. The victims are mutilated or hacked to pieces by their torturers.
May 4 The Battle of the Tunisian Frontier ends after nearly 4 months of combat during which the FLN lost nearly 4,000 men killed and 672 captured. French troops lost 279 killed and 758 wounded.
May 5 Robert Fouquereuau, the cook at a Heliopolis reception hall, is killed by shots from a revolver.
May 8 Robert Lacoste is decorated with the Cross of Military Valor at ceremonies marking VE Day in Algiers.
May 9 General Salan, with the agreement of Robert Lacoste, sends a telegram to President René Coty which ends, “The French Army would be unanimous in considering the abandonment of Algeria an insult and one cannot prejudge its reaction of despair. Mister President, only a Government firmly committed to maintaining our flag in Algeria can efface our anguish.” May 9
The FLN announces that it tried and executed 3 French soldiers in Tunisia on April 25th.
May 10 General Massu receives a petition to the President of the Republic by the junior officers of his division which ends, “We are certain that the people and the Army will never accept the abandonment of a part of the country... It is you and you alone who can still save it.” May 11
The Algiers weekly Dimanche Matin publishes Alain de Serigny’s appeal to General de Gaulle entitled, “PARLEZ... PARLEZ VITE MON GÉNÉRAL” (SPEAK, SPEAK QUICKLY MY GENERAL). May 11
Pierre Lagaillarde sums up his strategy during a meeting of the Group of Seven, “One takes the General Government by storm. One throws caution to the wind, the Army is obliged to intervene. It is not Salan who takes power, it is we who give it to him.” May 12
An emissary of the Pflimlin Cabinet arrives in Algiers to discuss a proposal to seek Moroccan and Tunisian mediation in starting negotiations with the FLN which would be granted quasi-official recognition.
May 12 Pierre Popie, liberal lawyer and defender of the FLN, returns the underground after passing a "valise" containing several million francs to the FLN.
May 12 Sixty nine rebels are put out of action during fighting southwest of Oued Zenatti.
May 13 Civilians and soldiers throughout Algeria demonstrate in protest against the execution of 3 French soldiers held prisoner in Tunisia.
In Algiers: † 1300 The American cultural center is ransacked by a mob.
† 1700 Demonstrators gather in front of the monument to the dead.
† 1800 Generals Salan and Massu lay wreaths at the monument to the dead before an audience of over 100,000 people.
† 1830 Pierre Lagaillarde incites the mob to attack the General Government building. Pierre Chaussade, Secretary General of the General Government, telephones Robert Lacoste in Paris, “It’s a riot, Mister Minister shall they fire? No, thats out of the question,” Lacoste shouts into the phone. † 1900 The General Government building is in the hands of the insurgents. General Salan appears on the balcony and is booed by the mob gathered in the plaza in front of the building. The demonstrators believe him hostile to French Algeria.
† 2100 General Massu announces the formation of a Committee of Public Safety in Algiers, under his presidency, which demands the formation of a Government of Public Safety, under the presidency of General de Gaulle, in Paris.
† 2345 General Massu reads the text of the Committee of Public Safety’s appeal to General de Gaulle before a crowd of 30,000 people. May 14
† 0100 General Salan crosses the Rubicon and takes charge of the insurgency he will recommence in 1961.
† 0200 From the balcony of the General Government, Colonel Jean Thomazo (called leather nose) explains the position of Salan to the acclaim of the 20,000 people still present in the plaza.
† 0230 The Committee of Public Safety gains strength and Léon Delbecque, an unconditional supporter of de Gaulle becomes its vice president.
† 0300 The Pflimlin Government gains the confidence of the Chamber of Deputies owing to the abstention of the Communists.
† 0600 Félix Gaillard turns over power to Pierre Pflimlin.
The strike continues in Algiers and the plaza which was nearly empty before dawn begins to refill.
May 14 All communication, by telephone, by air and by sea, between France and Algeria is interrupted.
May 14 General Salan sends President René Coty the following telegram, “Given the serious disorder which threatens the national unity in Algeria which cannot be stopped without the likelihood of bloodshed, the responsible military authorities believe there is a pressing need to call upon a national arbiter to form a Government of Public Safety... An appeal for calm from this high authority is the only means of restoring order.” May 14
The Unités Territoriales (militia) establish headquarters in the Oran city hall around noon then seize the radio station in the afternoon. The Oran Committee of Public Safety is formed and the militia occupies the Préfecture at the end of the day.
May 14 General de Gaulle announces that he is ready to assume the powers of the Republic.
May 14 The Prefect of the Grand Kabylie at Tizi-Ouzou orders the police to open fire if demonstrators attempt to seize public buildings.
May 14 General Paul Ely, Army Chief of Staff in Paris, resigns.
May 16 The Moslems rally en masse to the May 13 movement. There is fraternization in the plaza. Thousand of hands, European and Moslem, link to form and immense chain among the crowd.
May 17 Jacques Soustelle arrives in Algiers after slipping past police surveillance to leave France in secrecy.
May 17 Massu speaking to French Moslems declares, “Know that France will never abandon you! Together we will throw the enemy in service to the foreign out of our national territory. We will build an Algeria liberated from fear, a fraternal and humane Algeria where the words of equality, of fraternity, of justice will recover their full meaning. All of us who fought to affirm the permanence of France in Algeria, here, make that solemn oath.” May 18
An officer shouts from the balcony of the General Government, “We swear to defend French Algeria to the death if necessary.” Ten of thousands of hands rise and repeat after the officers, “We swear to defend French Algeria until death.” It becomes know as the Oath of May 13th. May 19
General de Gaulle holds a press conference at the Palais d’Orsay to announce that his services are at the disposal of the nation. May 19
In France, several generals including Maurice Challe are arrested.
May 22 Antoine Pinay pays a visit to Charles de Gaulle at Colombey les Deux Églises.
May 24 Commandant Vitasse, organizer of Plan Résurrection and Lagaillarde fly to Pau.
May 24 Paratroops favoring the May 13th movement seize the prefecture at Ajaccio, Corsica around 11 p.m.
May 26 Corsica, where the CRS (riot police) sent by Paris to reassert the constitutional order have joined the seditionists, rallies to the authority of Algiers.
May 26 General de Gaulle meets with Premier Pflimlin at Saint Cloud. The talks end without an agreement.
May 27 During the night Generals Salan and Massu signal Commandant Vitasse to implement Plan Resurrection beginning at 0230 on May 30th.
May 27 Despite the failure of his talks with Premier Pflimlin, General de Gaulle announces that he is pressing ahead with the formation of a republican government.
May 27 The Pflimlin Government receives an overwhelming vote of confidence including support from the Communists.
May 28 A call from the leftist political parties and the trade unions for demonstrations against de Gaulle brings 300 to 400,000 people into the streets of Paris.
May 28 General de Gaulle is forced to explain Plan Résurrection (the seizure of power in metropolitan France with the backing of paratroops from Algeria). Afterwards he tells departing paratroop officers, “Tell General Salan that what he did, what he will do is for the good of France.” May 28
Twenty people are injured when a grenade is thrown into a crowd of pro-French Moslems demonstrating at Mahouan near Sétif.
May 29 The Pflimlin Government resigns.
May 29 General Salan countermands his order to Commandant Vitasse. Plan Resurrection is cancelled for the moment.
May 29 Colonel Si Cherif, leader of the Free Moslem Armed Forces (FAFM), speaks from the balcony of the General Government in Algiers, “My pride is to be one of ten million French, who without distinction of race or religion are the sons of the same motherland, France.” May 29
El Moudjahid, the FLN newspaper, announces that Ramdane Abane, head of the Committee for Coordination and Execution, has been killed in combat. Abane was in fact murdered in Morocco on December 26, 1957 on orders from rivals within the FLN.
May 29 Colonel Jeanpierre of the 1st REP is killed along with a pilot and mechanic when their helicopter is shot down during a reconnaissance mission over Guelma. The fighting around Guelma leaves 112 French soldiers dead and 272 wounded. The FLN losses total 800 dead and 30 captured during the same engagement.
May 30 A declaration from the President of the Republic is read before a joint session of the National Assembly; “In the peril of the Nation and of the Republic, I turn to the most illustrious of Frenchmen, towards him, who during the darkest years of our history, was our leader in the reconquest of liberty and who having gained unanimous national support, refused dictatorship to restore the republic.” May 30
The National Assembly approves the nomination of de Gaulle to form a government.
May 30 General Salan reactivates Plan Resurrection, to be launched under one of three circumstances; if de Gaulle gives the order, if de Gaulle cannot form a government or if the Communist take-up arms.
June 1 During the debate on the nomination of the de Gaulle Government, François Mitterrand declares: "by right General de Gaulle will gain his powers from the national representation; in fact he holds it already by force."
June 1 Formation of the De Gaulle Government is approved by the National Assembly on a vote of 339 to 224.
June 2 Maître Mallem, an Algiers lawyer, declares during a meeting of the Algiers Committee of Public Safety, “In Algeria, the Crémieux decree, allowed a community to integrate with French society without obstructing the freedom to worship. It is important to give to the May 13th restoration movement full benefit of the dash which he raised to uproot the centuries of prejudices and habits which separate the population of the Moslem confession from modern life. The greatest glory of Kemal Atatürk is not to have revealed Aziyadé, but to have beaten in breach of the centuries of traditions. It is important to break a way of life patterned on fixed and anachronistic legislation.
Such a rupture does not imply an attack on the free exercise of worship. However the ancestral way of life must be abandoned, because it creates a gap between the various communities and carries in it a cause of dissension."
June 2 The civil authorities modify the matrimonial regulations pertaining to Moslems who henceforth may no longer repudiate their wives.
June 4 General de Gaulle speaks from the balcony of the General Government in Algiers. To the several hundred thousand people gathered below, he declares, “Je vous ai compris (I have understood you).... well! of all that, I take of it note in the name of France and I declare, that from today, France considers that, in all Algeria, there is only one category of inhabitants: there are only the entirely French... with the same rights and the same duties." June 5
The 20th Battalion of the Unités Territoriales is formed in the Algiers Casbah. The 1,200 man force is 35% Moslem.
June 6 At Mostaganem, General de Gaulle ends his speech, “Vive Mostaganem! Vive l'Algérie française! Vive la République! Vive la France!” June 11
General Raoul Salan is named Delegate General and Commander in Chief in Algeria.
June 11 Private André Gelos is freed by the Tirailleurs Algériens, his companion in captivity, Guillemot, was executed by their guards during the course of the battle with the Tirailleurs.
June 15 Six people are wounded in 4 grenade attacks at Constantine.
June 16 General Massu is appointed Prefect of Algiers.
June 18 The FLN issues a directive prohibiting registration for or participation in elections and demanding that a General Strike be observed during the voting under penalty of death.
June 20 Nineteen people are injured by a grenade thrown into a café on the Clos Salembier in Algiers.
June 21 General Salan orders the release of 130 internees held at Beni Messous.
June 23 Farm worker François Soriano is savagely murdered with a knife at El Ancor.
June 24 Thirteen men of the 6th Régiment Parachutiste Coloniale are killed in an ambush.
June 27 A grenade explodes in the Gonzales family apartment in Sidi Bel Abbes killing one person and wounding two.
June 27 Lucien Bernabeau, who was wounded in a bomb explosion along with 9 other victims, dies in the hospital at Relizane.
June 28 The Mayor of Algiers, Jacques Chevalier, resigns. He will be replaced by a special delegation two days later.
June 30 A French photographer and a school teacher are kidnapped near Colomb Bechar.
June 30 Retired baker Joseph Saurel is shot in the back and killed at Desaix.
July 1 Twenty two people, 11 Europeans and 11 Moslems, are wounded by a grenade explosion in the Chartres Market, Algiers.
July 4 Moslem women are granted suffrage and their own electoral college in Algeria.
July 9 Nine diners are injured by a grenade explosion in a Philippeville restaurant.
July 10 The French Army attacks the Bellounis maquis to end the exactions of its ally, the MNA. Bellounis is killed on July 14th. Sporadic fighting continues until July 28th when his body is recovered at Bou Saada. The maquis is annihilated except for a small band that escapes to join the FLN.
July 11 Three Frenchmen are killed and two wounded when rival MNA and FLN terrorists exchange shots in Paris.
July 14 Delegations of Moslem veterans from Algeria and North African troops participate in the Paris Bastille Day parade.
July 15 Moise Chemia, verger at Temple Midrache, is killed and 35 others are wounded in 4 terrorist attacks in Constantine.
July 15 Twenty people are injured in grenade attacks at Oran.
July 23 French francs are circulated in Algeria and Algerian banknotes are now accepted in metropolitan France. Algerian coins are withdrawn from circulation and replaced by French ones.
July 25 The Algerian railways are merged with the French National Railways (SNCF).
August 10 Five year old Pascale Orcini is killed and 24 others are wounded when 2 grenades explode in downtown Saida.
August 10 Thirteen people are wounded when a grenade explodes in an Oran cinéma.
August 10 Three teenagers are killed and 3 other Europeans are wounded in drive by machine-gunning at Kolea.
August 16 Twenty five Moslems, men, women and children are massacred by a band of rebels on the Honaine Estate near Algiers .
August 16 Seven people including a young girl are wounded when rebels open fire on bathers at a beach near Tenes.
August 16 An Algerian is killed on a Paris street by a fellow Moslem who also wounds 3 bystanders including 6 year old Martine Bouland.
August 20 FLN agents blow up 4 gasoline storage tanks in Rouen, France.
August 20 In France, the General Association of Algerian Workers, an FLN front group, is dissolved.
August 24 At midnight , the FLN goes on the offensive throughout metropolitan France. Petroleum depots are arsoned at Rouen, Port La Nouvelle and Alès. Several police stations and barracks are machine gunned. Seven gendarmes are killed and four are seriously injured. Sabotage derails a train on the railway near Cagnes sur Mer.
August 24 FLN commandos set forest fires in the department of Var to distract firefighters from the fire they are about to set at the Mourepaine fuel depot in suburban Marseilles. The Mourepaine fire burns for ten days.
August 24 Marceau Fargeon is shot in the head and killed while fishing at Courbet Marine.
August 24 Pédro Sébastien Marques, age 59, is killed while working in his field near Lamoricière.
August 25 Three policemen are killed and another is wounded during an attack in the garage of the Paris Préfecture of Police.
August 25 An FLN gang kills four policemen during an attack on a munitions plant in suburban Paris.
August 25 Four people are killed, 4 wounded and 10 go missing in a series of attacks across Algeria.
August 25 A terrorist is blown up by his own bomb while preparing to attack the Esso refinery at Notre Dame de Gravenchon.
August 26 Eight policemen are wounded in attacks by an FLN gang in Marseilles.
August 26 Explosives are discovered at Cape Pinede, Saint Louis, Aygalades, Lavera, Le Havre and Frontignan.
August 26 Seven people are killed including 4 policemen in a series of machine-gunnings aimed at police stations and barracks across metropolitan France.
August 26 Terrorists kill a Paris policeman and wound 3 others.
August 26 Two Algerian Moslems are killed when the explosives they are carrying detonate in the Department of Isère, France.
August 27 A curfew is imposed on Algerians in the Department of the Seine (Paris).
August 27 Three Algerians attack a French officer in a hallway of the Paris métro.
August 30 An Algerian Moslem is mortally wounded by a soldier in Paris. A bystander Madame Darcier is wounded and soldier Raymond Ras is stabbed.
September 1 The French Army in Algeria numbers 442,000 men.
September 1 The Simca automobile works at Poissy is the target of arsonists.
September 3 A curfew is imposed on Algerians in the French Department of Rhône.
September 3 Saboteurs resume their attempts to damage oil storage facilities at Alès, France.
September 5 A violent explosion rocks the steamer President Cazalet en route from Bône to Marseilles. Seven people are injured. The FLN denies responsibility for the attack.
September 6 Rural guard Pruvost and his wife are murdered in their home at Takdempt near Dellys.
September 8 A grenade explosion wounds 20 patrons of an art exhibition at Bouira.
September 9 The FLN establishes the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic (GPRA).
September 9 Terrorists sabotage the railway in the Department of Drome and attack cafés in several metropolitan French towns.
September 12 A grenade and dynamite are thrown into a Marseilles gasworks but fail to explode.
September 12 An explosive charge is discovered at Aygalades.
September 14 Terrorists attempt sabotage in metropolitan France on the Lyon-Bordeaux express, in the De Brotteaux station and the Nimes Courbessac station.
September 14 Three soldiers are wounded at Joinville and an officer is wounded at Metz, France.
September 14 A grenade is thrown into a Marseilles bar frequented by the Communists.
September 15 An FLN commando unit opens fire on a car carrying Information Minister Jacques Soustelle in Paris. A civilian is killed and 3 are wounded in the ensuing exchange of fire between the police and the assassins.
September 15 Three people are injured when a bomb explodes in the Bouches du Rhone Préfecture in Marseilles.
September 15 Two farms near Maubeuge are burnt.
September 15 A railway signal between Milhaud and Bernis in the Department of Gard is sabotaged.
September 15 Four police squad cars are machine-gunned in Paris.
September 15 Several shots are fired at the La Capelette police station in Marseille.
September 16 Terrorist attacks continue in metropolitan France at Paris, Le Havre and Sèvres.
September 17 Messali Hadj survives an FLN attack but his body guard is killed.
September 17 The FLN offensive in metropolitan France continues. Bombs explode in a butane gas depot in Paris and a postal parcel in Marseilles. Fires are set in Compiègne and near Lille. Terrorist stage machinegun attacks in Lyon.
September 18 FLN divers attempting to plant explosive charges on the cruiser Jean Bart are found drowned in Toulon harbor.
September 19 Father Juquet, a member of the White Fathers of Africa, is gravely wounded by the rebels on the road from Sétif to Kerrata.
September 19 One person is killed and 8 wounded in a grenade attack on an Algiers bar.
September 20 A mass grave containing the bodies of 400 rebels killed on orders from Amirouche is uncovered.
September 21 A seven year old child is killed and 5 other people are wounded when terrorists open fire on a police patrol in Sidi Bel Abbes.
September 21 An FLN bomb is discovered on the third stage of the Eiffel Tower and disarmed.
September 22 Two people are killed and 20 wounded in an explosion set off by terrorists at the Kleber-Colombes Tire Factory near Paris.
September 23 The FLN mounts a series of attacks in metropolitan France; a soldier survives a fusillade in Marseilles, a time bomb is found near the broadcasting transmitters in the Eiffel Tower, three terrorists are cut down by police at Aubervilliers, a terrorist gang attacks workers at the Simca factory in Nanterre and the Vitry electric generating station is put on alert.
September 23 A grenade explosion wounds 16 people including 3 children in Algiers.
September 26 The FLN renews its threats against the referendum and calls for a General Strike. “Whoever leaves his home on September 28th will be cut down by the FLN.” September 27
Algerian terrorists kill tow policemen and seriously injure three others in Rouen, France.
September 27 An acetylene plant at Courneuve, France is attacked with plastic explosive.
September 28 In Algeria, 3,476,394 voters ignore FLN threats to vote in the referendum. The Constitution of the Fifth Republic is approved by 95% of the Algerian electorate (79% in metropolitan France). Moslem women Algeria vote for the first time.
October 1 The French Army in Algeria numbers 400,000 men.
October 3 Businessman Alexandre Panicucchi is arrested in Philippeville for collusion with the FLN.
October 6 Captain Jacques Tedde is killed by the rebels while leading a party of spear fishermen between Cape De Garde and Herbillon.
October 6 Mr. Justen, a guard at the Aéroclub d'Ain-Taya, is mortally wounded in an ambush.
October 9 The Government orders members of the military to resign from the Committee of Public Safety.
October 15 The defendants on trial for the 1957 bazooka attack on General Salan are found guilty. René Kovacs, escaped, is sentenced to death; Philippe Castille to 10 years at hard labor; four others are given 5 to 6 years in prison. Some will escape. Others are freed during the April 1961 putsch. All of them eventually join the OAS which will be led by Salan, their intended victim.
October 17 Six gendarmes are killed in an ambush near Sétif.
October 19 Abbé Carteron, alias Monsieur Albert, thought to be the treasurer of the FLN social organization in the Lyon region is brought before a judge of instruction at Lyon, France.
October 19 Two clergymen are arrested in Lyon on charges of aiding the FLN.
October 20 Antoinette Idjeri, a young Moslem born in France and an FLN liason in Marseilles, is arrested in Paris.
October 20 The FLN frees 4 French prisoners.
October 23 General de Gaulle offers the FLN a “Peace of the Brave”. October 23
Madame Munoz receives a citation in the orders of the division, for heroic conduct. "She repulsed two attacks against the farm she managed at St. Denis Du Sig and thanks to the alert she gave permitted the annihilation of the outlaws. This citation carries the attribution of the Croix de la Valeur Militaire.” October 25
The FLN rejects General de Gaulle’s peace proposal. October 26
General Salan orders Colonel Bigeard transferred to metropolitan France following a policy dispute.
October 27 Six people are wounded by a grenade explosion in an Algiers café.
October 29 General Salan marks Armistice Day by ordering the release of 2,800 FLN internees.
October 30 The explosion of two booby trapped shells kills 12 people including 3 children and wounds 30 others in Tiaret.
November 3 Louis Berthier, a 44 year old industrialist, son of the Mayor of Birkadem, and his employee, Lucien Boyer, are grievously wounded by revolver fire in Algiers.
November 6 A gendarme and a village constable are killed in Matemore.
November 9 Pierre Toux, a Bugeaud school principal, Second Lieutenants Alain Scherrer and Alain Brunaud are killed by the fellaghas.
November 10 Six passengers are killed and 13 wounded when a train hits a mine on the Djelfa line near Blida.
November 13 Sheik Lakhdari Abdellali, Iman of the Sidi El Kettani Mosque, is wounded by revolver shots in Constantine.
November 15 A group of FLN Colonels headed by Lamouri plot the elimination of Belkacem Krim, Abdelhafid Boussouf and Lakhdar Ben Tobbal.
November 17 Si Azedine, military commander of Wilaya 4, is wounded in combat and taken prisoner by the 3rd Régiment Parachutiste Coloniale southeast of Palestro.
November 19 Belkacem Krim has Colonel Lamouri and 50 FLN dissidents arrested and taken to Kef in Tunisia where they are later tried and many are executed.
November 19 Two fishermen are attacked by rebels hiding in the bush near Philippeville. François Di Lorio, age 63, is killed. His brother manages to escape.
November 22 FLN terrorists torture and mutilate 4 Moslems at La Ciotat, France. The bodies are found in a cistern.
November 22 The skeletal remains of two workmen kidnapped by the fellaghas in July 1956 are found near Philippeville.
November 25 General Salan recalls Colonel Bigeard to Algeria. Bigeard is sent to Saïda to oversee the training of two elite regiments. Bigeard also creates commando unit Georges which is composed of former FLN rebels.
November 27 Six people including 4 soldiers are killed when the trucks they are riding in are hit by mortar shells near Orléansville.
November 27 Two shop foremen are mortally wounded by a burst of machinegun fire in Kerrata.
November 30 Si Azedine travels to Palestro under military escort to deliver a letter to the chief of the region. Upon his return, he addresses a declaration to the French authorities, “Without disavowing my past, I am determined to put an end to this fratricidal fight and wish to devote myself to a new Algeria.” November 30
Legislative elections are conducted in Algeria.
December 1 Si Azedine, with the accord with the French authorities, travels through Wilaya 1 in an effort to establish contact with the regional leader, Captain Maoussa.
December 3 General de Gaulle visits the iron mines at Ouenza which produce 2.3 billion tons of ore annually.
December 3 Three French prisoners are released by the FLN.
December 4 Trains in Orania and the Constantine are badly damaged when they hit mines but no one is injured.
December 4 Si Azedine journeys to Wilaya IV in an attempt to contact Colonel Si M'Hamed.
December 4 Emile Bixio, owner of the Touring Hotel, is kidnapped from his home in Batna by persons unknown.
December 4 Tax collector Marcel Sellens is killed by a burst of machinegun fire outside Cherchel.
December 7 The new director of the Ain Barbar Mines, Yves de Saint Denis, and an employee are killed by the rebels in Bône. His predecessor had also been murdered.
December 8 Si Azedine meets with Si Salah then arrested and taken to Tunis by Si Tayeb, the head of the Wilaya IV intelligence service.
December 9 Tirailleurs Sénégalais from Guinea are demobilized and repatriated to their country which was given immediate independence after voting no on the referendum.
December 12 General Raoul Salan is replaced as Delegate General by Paul Delouvrier and as Commander in Chief in Algeria by General Maurice Challe.
December 15 Colonel Henri Debrus, Commandant Robert Monnier and Lieutenant Robert Clausse win the Algiers to Capetown automobile rally and set a record that stands until 1970.
December 19 General Salan leaves Algiers, where an immense crowd calls for his retention, to assume his new post of Inspector General of the Army.
December 21 General De Gaulle is elected President of the Republic and of the French Community by the Electoral College.
December 23 President De Gaulle names General Salan Military Governor of Paris as well as Inspector General of the Army.
December 30 Ten Frenchmen including 4 soldiers are wounded when a grenade explodes in the Terminus Bar at Sidi Bel Abbes.
December 30 Four Moslems including a 10 year old child are injured when a grenade explodes in a street in the Casbah of Algiers.
December 30 Five soldiers are killed and 20 wounded when their truck hits a mine near Orléansville.
1959 January 6 Captain Graziani, Algiers native and celebrated Para of the Battle of Algiers, is killed while leading his company on an operation with the 27th DIA in Grande Kabylia. FLN losses in the operation total 294 dead and 4 captured.
January 8 Charles de Gaulle succeeds René Coty as President of the French Republic.
January 9 The Government of Michel Debré takes office. The Premier delivers a policy address stating, “It is under French sovereignty that Algeria will develop ... the offer of cease fire remains valid but their will be no political negotiation.” January 11
Units of the 61st RAA trap a rebel band southwest of Port Gueydon near Ighil Ouhmani killing 40 and capturing 3.
January 13 Clemency is granted to FLN prisoners. All those condemned to death are pardoned. 7,000 internees are released. Ahmed Ben Bella and his fellow prisoners are transferred from Santé prison to a fortified enclosure on the Ile d'Aix.
January 14 Funeral services are held at Maillot hospital in Algiers for 22 French soldiers killed in combat.
January 30 President de Gaulle renews his offer of peace in Algeria.
February 6 Plan Challe is implemented in the Saïda region near Oran. 1,764 rebels will be killed, 516 captured and 131 will desert to the French side during the operation.
February 7 The Inspectorate General of Defense, directed by General Salan, is disbanded.
February 8 Colonel Antoine Argoud assumes command as Chief of Staff of the Algiers Army Corps.
February 11 An attempt by the rebels to cross the electrified fence along the border with Tunisia in the Morsott region is checked. 150 of the intruders are killed, 25 captured and 33 escape back into Tunisia.
February 20 Plan Challe continues in the Ouarsenis region. Three divisions along with air support kill 52 FLN rebels and capture 30 others.
February 25 During an operation in the Azazga sector, the 27th BCA traps a band of rebels which escapes by freeing its prisoner, the Curé of Akbou who was kidnapped by the FLN 10 days earlier.
February 26 Thousands of leaflets urging the fellaghas to accept President de Gaulle’s Peace of the Brave are dropped on the mountains. March 4
American photojournalist Flint Kellens and his German interpreter Raymond Aircle are killed when their car is ambushed by the FLN near the Col du Juif on the highway between the Moroccan border and Oran. Another photographer is seriously wounded in the attack.
March 7 The arrondissement of Tebessa is taken from the Department of Batna and returned to Bône.
March 8 The Czech freighter Lidice is stopped while transporting arms and munitions to the FLN.
March 9 Twelve FLN rebels are killed and 10 captured during an operation in the Frenda sector of the Ouarsenis region.
March 16 Colonels Lamouri, Laskri Amara, Nouaraoua and certain of their partisans, who plotted against the leadership of the FLN, are shot at Tunis. Ahmed Draria, sentenced to prison for his role in the plot, will become head of the Sûreté Algérienne in 1962.
March 17 Aumale and three neighboring arrondissements are separated from the Department of Batna and organized as new department.
March 21 FLN Captain Ali Hambli along with 130 of his men agrees to accept the Peace of the Brave and surrenders to the 3rd Hussards. Twenty dissidents among the rebels are executed.
March 27 An operation near Bidon V on the Moroccan border south of Colomb Bechar ends with 9 rebels killed including Colonel Lofti, the leader of Wilaya 5, his assistant commander Tahar and their body guards.
March 28 Colonel Aït Hamouda Amirouche, commander of FLN Wilaya III in Kabylia and Colonel El Haouès Ben Abdelkader, commander of FLN Wilaya VI in the Sahara, are killed by counter-insurgents during an operation in the djebel Tsameur north of Bou Saada.
April 2 Captain Ali Hambli, now allied with the French, leads a 60 man force on a raid against the ALN camp at Ghardimaou, Tunisia.
April 10 The FLN machine guns the patrons of a café in Saint Denis near Paris. Boughera El Ouafi, a 61 year old native of Constantine and winner of the marathon in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, is among those killed.
April 10 Police in metropolitan France arrest 465 FLN supporters.
April 15 Bouharaoua becomes the first Moslem mayor of Algiers under French rule.
April 15 Operation Courroie commences in the Algiers region.
April 21 President de Gaulle pardons 30 FLN prisoners held under sentence of death.
April 23 An officer is killed and 5 soldiers are wounded when a column of the 13th Cavalry Regiment unwittingly enters a minefield planted by the FLN near Azazga.
April 24 A mass grave containing 37 bodies is uncovered east of Tablat. They are the bodies of rebels purged by Amirouche, the leader of Wilaya 3 according to information obtained from interrogation of FLN held prisoner by the French.
April 25 A rebel band is annihilated near Molière in the djebel Zerzour of the Ouarsenis region. 92 are killed and 27 captured.
April 29 President de Gaulle, declares, "The Algeria of papa is dead. If one does not understand that, one will die with it." in an interview with Pierre Laffont, editor of l'Echo d'Oran
May 5 Colonel Si M'Hamed, chief of Wilaya IV, mysteriously disappears.
May 13 The anniversary of the May 13th Revolt is observed as a public holiday for the first and last time. A crowd of over 100,000 people gather in Algiers to hear General Massu declare, “It is the solemn undertaking of the Army to maintain Algeria as French territory.” The new Mayor of Algiers, Bouharaoua, follows with a speech in which he declares, “This Algeria, French province, will soon know, for all her sons, thanks to the effort expended on behalf of all France by General de Gaulle.”May 15
French troops acting on intelligence reports undertake an operation in the Ouarsenis. FLN losses include 70 killed, 10 wounded and 5 captured.
May 20 Two Europeans taken prisoner by the FLN at an outpost of the 8th Régiment Spahis Algérien are released after spending over a year in captivity. Thirteen others died in captivity.
June 4 An air patrol spots a suspected rebel caravan in the western Grand Erg. Paratroops are dropped and a brief battle ensues. Five rebels are killed and camels loaded with 4.5 tons of munitions and supplies are recovered.
June 11 Tirailleurs Algériens free Private André Gelos from imprisonment by the FLN, his fellow captive, Guillemot, was executed by their guards.
June 24 Thirty eight members of a rebel band sighted near Bône are killed and 9 captured. Seven rebels escape but are tracked down and killed the next day.
July 8 - 20 Operation Étincelle is conducted in the Hodna region.
July 9 La Mouvement pour la Communauté (MPC) is created to provide a legal front for the activities of agents of the SAC and eventually spearheads the effort to crush the OAS.
July 15 The 11th BT is ambushed in the Hodna region. 19 men are killed in action.
July 22 – August 8 Operation Jumelles is conducted in the Kabylie. 98 FLN rebels are killed and 13 captured.
July 27 President de Gaulle begins a month long tour of Algeria.
July 31 Premier Michel Debré declares, “The departments of Algeria and the Sahara form a part of the Republic the same as the metropolitan departments. If France left Algeria, it would be a civil war.” August 1
Twenty nine soldiers of the 18th Régiment Parachustiste Coloniale are killed in an ambush.
August 11 Operation Pierres Précieuses gets underway in the Petite Kabylie.
August 26 The Hassi Messaoud - Bougie petroleum pipeline is placed in service.
August 27 Colonel Bigeard reports that President de Gaulle has promised him, “De Gaulle will never treat with the assassins and the FLN flag will not fly over Algiers.” September 3
The Commune of Borley la Sapie is transferred from the jurisdiction of the Miliana arrondissement in the Department of Orléansville to the Department of Médéa.
September 13 A bomb explodes on board the German ship Brussard off the Dutch coast. The French Special Services suspect the freighter of carrying arms to the FLN in Algeria.
September 15 The FLN issues instructions in its underground bulletin, "However the Algerian patriot is treated by the police or the Army, when brought before a judge, he will declare without giving too many details, that he was beaten and tortured, that he was shocked with electricity. ... Each arrested patriot will not hesitate to burn himself with a cigarette or beat himself in order to have marks to show the judge. These instructions must be learnt by heart, spread by word and the bulletin destroyed at once.” September 16
President de Gaulle proposes self-determination for Algeria with three options; secession, integration with France and association.
September 17 A five member FLN commando unit attempts to assassinate Messali Hadj, head of the rival Mouvement National Algérien in Chantilly, France. Police kill two of the terrorists.
September 18 The Army covers the walls of Algiers with posters inscribes “Algérie française toujours”. September 19
La Rassemblement pour l'Algérie Française (Rally for French Algeria) is formed under the leadership of Georges Bidault.
September 24 Nine Frenchmen are killed and 12 others wounded in the explosion of bombs planted or thrown by the FLN at various locations throughout Algeria.
October 3 War veterans in metropolitan France demonstrate in favor of French Algeria.
October 9 An Alouette II helicopter carrying Generals Gilles, Massu and Saint Hillier crashes on take off from a base in the Ouarsenis. All on board escape unscathed.
October 26 Marshal Alphonse Juin, a native of Bône, declares his opposition to Gaullist Algerian policies in a letter addressed to the President.
November 7 The Department of Aumale is suppressed. The arrondissements of Aumale, Tablat and Bou Saada are attached to the Department of Médéa and Ouled Djellal is returned to the Department of Batna.
November 7 The Department of Bougie is suppressed and its arrondissements are returned to their former jurisdictions under the departments of Constantine and Sétif.
November 7 The arrondissement of Barika is taken from the Department of Sétif and returned to Batna.
November 7 The arrondissement of Telagh is taken from the Department of Saïda and returned to Oran.
November 9 Sergeant Gaffory, Privates Cinquini and Laurent Ferrero and a civilian from Bordj Bou Arreridj, held prisoner by the FLN in a cave in the Batna region for 11 months, are freed by troops of the 7th Régiment de Tirailleurs Algérien. A Moslem corporal taken prisoner with them was executed.
November 10 President de Gaulle renews his offer of self-determination and a cease fire to the FLN.
November 20 The Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic designates Amhed Ben Bella and his fellow prisoners as their negotiators. President de Gaulle rejects this proposal.
December 15 Marie Claire and Olivier Gendebien finish second in the last Algiers to Capetown automobile rally.
December 24 The Danish freighter Granita is stopped while carrying 40 tons of TNT to the FLN.
December 25 An FLN bomb explodes in the Rue d'Isly, Algiers, killing 3 people and injuring 40.
December 28 Eight of the Algerian Communist Party’s 39 member Central Committee are in FLN guerilla groups and 21 others are in prison or dead.
1960 January 4 Albert Camus is killed an automobile accident at Petit Villeblev, France.
January 6 Intelligence services radio monitors, intercept a series of messages, transmitted between Si Salah, the leader of Wilaya 4 (Algiers), and the FLN general staff at Oujda in which he expounds on the weariness an boredom of his guerillas and threatens to accept de Gaulle’s “Peace of the Brave” offer if the situation does not improve. January 15
Four soldiers are killed when 2 SAS trucks are ambushed near Le Chenoua.
January 18 A German newspaper publishes an interview with General Massu in which he is quoted as making several disrespectful remarks in regards to President de Gaulle. Massu denies the making the remarks attributed to him.
January 19 General Massu is recalled to Paris and banned from returning to Algeria.
January 20 Georges Bidault is expelled from Algeria.
January 22 General Crépin replaces General Massu as commander of the Algiers Army Corps.
January 24 In Algiers, lawyers Pierre Lagaillarde and Jean Meningaut, café owner Joe Ortiz and Doctor Jean Claude Perez of the FNF organize demonstrations to protest General Massu’s dismissal. Around 6 p.m. , a confrontation between riot police and demonstrators, including armed units of the Bab el Oued and Casbah Unités Territoriales, erupts. The week long battle of the “barricades” will leave 8 gendarmes and 11 protesters dead; 85 police and 56 demonstrators wounded. January 24
In Oran, May 13th Union councilman Villeneuve calls on the citizenry to with draw their barricades and begin a General Strike.
January 24 Fourteen people are killed and 123 are wounded in attacks by rightwing extremists targeting Algiers gendarmes.
January 27 Philippe Castille, who fired a bazooka shell at General Salan, escapes from prison and reaches France.
January 28 General Challe and Paul Delouvrier leave Algiers for the safety of a base at Régghaïa.
January 28 Colonel Bigeard speaking at Saïda asks, “What fight do the men of the barricades and the Army want, the certainty that their fight is not in vain. Then the barricades will disappear and together we will finish the fight against the real rebellion.” January 30
Algerian deputies Biaggia and Kaouah are arrested in Paris for sympathizing with the insurgents on the barricades.
February 1 The insurgents leave their barricades behind Lagaillard and their colors and surrender to to the 1st Régiment Étranger des Parachustistes.
February 1 Colonel Bigeard is disciplined for his remarks regarding the barricades episode. He is ordered to leave Algeria and eventually transferred to a post in the Central African Republic.
February 2 Diehards among the insurrectionist refuse to surrender their arms and regroup under the name of Alcazar commandos, a reference to the fierce resistance put on by the Nationalists defenders of the Alcazar during the Spanish Civil War.
February 3 Commandant Sapin-Lignières, commander of the Algiers Sahel Unités Territoriales is arrested along with Captain Marcel Ronda; Alain de Sérigny, editor of l'Echo d'Alger, as well as Féral, Jean Claude Perez,Lefebvre, Demarquet, Arnoud, Jean Jacques Susini, Trappe and Sanne. The defendants will be acquitted at trial on March 3, 1961 but placed under administrative internment.
February 3 Sanctions are imposed on numerous officers in Algeria and in France including Colonel Jean Gardes for expressing sympathy towards the insurrectionists. They remain free on bail.
February 3 Joseph Ortiz, Meningaud, Robert Martel and Raymond Laquières remain fugitives.
February 4 President de Gaulle disbands the Army Psychological Warfare Bureau for sympathizing with the insurgents on the barricades.
February 5 In the wake of the Barricades Affair, Jacques Soustelle and Bernard Cornut Gentille (future Mayor of Cannes) are dismissed for sympathizing with the insurrections. Numerous Generals and Colonels are transferred including Jacques Faure, Marcel Bigeard, Broizat and Gracieux.
February 10 The Unités Territoriales in Algeria are dissolved. Some units had participated in the Barricades Insurrection.
February 13 Gerboise Bleue, the first test of a French atomic bomb, is conducted at the Reggane Oasis in the Sahara 700 kilometers south of Colomb Bechar. The plutonium fission device detonates atop a 105 meter tower at 0704 GMT. The resulting explosion, an estimated 60-70 kilotons, is the most powerful ever achieved by a nuclear power in its first attempt.
February 14 General Massu declares, “The Army does not cease to claim that a state of war exists, that adversaries in uniform are to be treated as prisoners of war. When will the terrorists in civil [garb]... who randomly kill defenseless people. It has been months since we asked that the laws of war be applied to them, that they be considers franc-tireurs and shot." He continues, “Certain generals are given to support with the greatest abnegation, the misdeeds of others which cause hundreds of people to perish, rather than dirty their hands?” Finally, “the rights of the innocent are greater than those of the guilty.” March 3
President de Gaulle lands at Telergma to begin a short tour of Algeria.
March 5 President de Gaulle speaking at Azziz near Aumale declares, “ Algeria will be Algerian...she will remain tied to France… there are thousands of Europeans who have the right to be here and to remain here. There are 400,000 Moslems who work in France and who provide the livelihood of 3 million Moslems here...France, alone, is capable of developing Algeria.” March 10
General Crépin replaces General Challe as Commander in Chief of the Army in Algeria.
March 17 Three emissaries of Wilaya 4 leader Si Salah meet secretly with the Cadi of Médéa to arrange a rendezvous with the French authorities.
March 28 At the end of the afternoon, 3 emissaries of Si Salah meet with 2 of President de Gaulle’s close collaborators in the Prefecture of Médéa. The wilaya’s policy directors tell the French emissaries, “We want peace but for us it is neither defeat nor surrender. We represent our comrades, combatants of the maquis and we are ready to laydown our weapons if it does not resemble a surrender. What we desire is an end to European domination and an Algerian future developed in close cooperation between Algerians of Moslem and European origin. Everyone has a right to live in peace in his country. We desire a close cohabitation with the Europeans and important cooperation with France.” March 31
French representatives and emissaries of Wilaya 4, comprising 75% of the rebel forces within Algeria, reach an accord on the conditions for a cease fire in line with the position outlined at Médéa 3 days earlier. The emissaries of Si Salah request a suspension of French military operations in Wilaya 4 for a period of 8 weeks to permit contact with the other wilayas.
April 1 Gerboise Blanche, a second French nuclear weapons test, is conducted at Reggane. The surface detonation produces an explosion equivalent to <20 kilotons of TNT.
April 1 The Yugoslav freighter Slovenia is stopped by the French Navy while transporting arms and munitions.
April 12 General Challe, Commander in Chief of the Army in Algeria, refuses to accept Premier Michel Debré’s order to leave Algeria within 48 hours along with the Grand Cordon of the Legion of Honor that Debré sends him. April 23
General Challe leaves Algeria to become French ambassador to NATO.
April 29 French authorities inform Belkacem Krim that a meeting must take place with Si Salah at Médéa.
May 1 General Crépin assumes command of the Army in Algeria.
May 4 In Paris, an FLN terrorist fires 5 shots wounding Deputy Robert Abdesselam.
May 6 A 270 man battalion of the ALN crosses the Moroccan frontier east of Aïn Seffra is trapped at Djebel M’zi. French forces kill 74 and capture 23 of the rebels. French losses total 12 dead and 20 wounded. May 31
The protagonists in the Si Salah affair resume talks at the Médéa prefecture. The rebels confirm their acceptance of the ceasefire accords on condition that they meet with a high ranking state official to conclude the final pact.
June 1 The Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic establishes a diplomatic mission in China.
June 5 The French War Veterans Association (ACUF) passes a resolution in favor of bestowing the title of “combattant” on the veterans of the rebellion in French North Africa. The move is taken during a session of the association’s annual congress at Rennes chaired by the Salan General. June 9
General Salan delivers his farewell address to the Army at an honors ceremony in the Invalides, Paris.
June 10 Colonel Si Salha, chief of Wilaya 4, Si Mohamed military commander of Wilaya 4 and Si Lakdar, political adjudant of Si Salah, meet secretly with President De Gaulle at the Élysée Palace in order to negotiate a “Peace of the Brave” for the rebels of Wilays 3, 4, 5 and 6. All of the FLN participants in the meeting are eventually assassinated. June 14
President de Gaulle renews his peace offer to the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic while also alluding to his contacts with Si Salah.
June 16 The French Algeria Front (FAF) is formed in Algiers under the presidency of Bachaga Boualam. The Front’s membership grows to over 420,000 within days. June 19
Delegate General Paul Delouvrier prohibits newspapers from leaving blank spaces in place of censored articles, a practice they have followed or a regular basis since November 1954.
June 20 Ferhat Abbas launches an appeal to the Algerian people.
June 25 Preliminary negotiations with the FLN are held at Melun.
June 30 The MNA reaffirms its position that there should be no discrimination between the Algerians, whether they are Europeans or Jews, they should be equal citizens of the Algerian fatherland. The MNA calls upon these minorities to contribute to the re-establishment of peace and the construction of the Algerian State.
July 28 The execution of Lieutenant Raymond Bouchemal, head of the SAS in Tassala, North Constantine, who was taken prisoner by the FLN on June 5, 1958 is announced during a broadcast of the Voice of Arab Algeria transmitted by Radio Tunis.
July 31 Thirteen French bathers are murdered and 6 others are wounded during an FLN attack on the Carobier beach between Algiers and Cherchel.
August 4 The Bishop of Algiers, Monsignor Duval, refuses to allow a memorial mass to be said in the Cathedral of Algiers for two Pied Noir conscripts captured and shot by the FLN.
August 9 Two conscripts in the 8th Spahis, taken prisoner during an ambush by the FLN, are shot by the ALN near Gardimahou, Tunisia.
August 10 Delegate General Paul Delouvrier informs Salan that his presence is undesirable and that he will be expelled if he does not voluntarily leave Algerian territory.
August 10 General Salan leaves for Algiers to begin his retirement.
August 13 Privates Clotaire Le Galle and Michel Castera, prisoners of the FLN, are shot in Tunisia by order of the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic.
August 18 President de Gaulle commutes the death sentences of 10 FLN prisoners.
August 25 An FLN commando unit machine-guns bathers on the beach at Chenoua, west of Algiers, leaving several of them dead or wounded.
September 1 Pro-French Algeria Europeans are expelled from Algeria.
September 3 La Mouvement Pour la Communauté (MPC), destined to promote Gaullist policy favoring independence, is set up in Algeria.
September 5 Trial of the Jeanson Network opens in Paris. The defendants, 18 metropolitan Frenchmen and 6 French Moslems, are charged with collecting funds to aid the FLN.
September 5 The Manifesto of the 121, A Declaration of the Right of Insubordination in the Algerian War which among other things calls on French conscripts to desert is published under the signature of 121 celebrities including Jean Paul Sarte, Simone de Beauvoir, Françoise Sagan, Simone Signoret and Vercors but no Communists.
September 9 The FLN takes a step closer to accepting President Eisenhower’s policy. September 14
Thirteen signatories of the Manifesto of the 121 are charged with sedition.
September 15 In Algiers, General Salan declares that no authority has the power to abandon a portion of territory under French sovereignty.
September 18 Army Minister Pierre Messmer recalls General Salan to Paris.
September 20 Protagonists in the Si Salah affair are betrayed and arrested by Si Mohamed. They are executed with the exception of Si Salah who loses his command and remains a prisoner. Salah’s supporters are purged from the wilayas. September 21
Three French officers are killed when a mine planted by the FLN explodes at Biskra.
September 22 The Minister of Defense bars General Salan from entering Algeria.
September 23 The combat bonus, abolished under President de Gaulle, is restored is restored to military pensioners in metropolitan France. The pensions paid to French veterans residing the former colonies remains frozen at approximately $15 a year.
September 26 Five Moslem deputies of the Gaullist Union pour la Nouvelle Republique (UNR) resign.
October 2 The Jeanson Network trial ends in conviction for 17 of the accused.
October 3 The Communist Party adopts the principles set forth in Manifesto 121 which declares, “We consider the actions of Frenchmen to provide assistance and protection to the Algerians of the FLN justified.” October 8
One person is killed and 12 others are wounded when an FLN member throws a grenade into a Bône café. The victims were all French or British sailors.
October 24 Ferhat Abbas tells the New York Times that Soviet and Chinese aid to the Provisional Government is growing.
October 25 General Salan tells a Paris press conference, “Algeria will remain what it is, French, and France is ready to make sacrifices to gain French victory.” October 27
Violent clashes between advocates and adversaries of French Algeria erupt in Paris following student demonstrations in favor of peace.
October 28 A plenary meeting of the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic is held in Tunis.
November 1 The membership of the Front Algérie Française, 40% Moslem, passes the million mark.
November 2 General Raoul Salan, fearing immenent house arrest, flees France for Spain.
November 3 The Barricades Trial begins. The 15 defendants include a Colonel, a Commandant and 4 fugitives who will be tried in absentia. General Jacques Massu will testify that the Delegate General Paul Delouvier had collaborated in transforming the internment camps into seminaries of rebellion, “where the Army dared not stick its nose.” November 4
President de Gaulle refers to, “the Algerian Republic which will exist one day,” for the first time during a televised speech. November 5
The Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic demands that 200,000 French citizens leave Algeria and that those who remain will be offered only limited guarantees.
November 10 President de Gaulle speaking in Corsica declares, “The FLN has nearly all the Moslems of Algeria with it.” November 11
Marshal Juin, a native of Algeria and hero of the Italian campaign, refuses to participate in Armistice Day ceremonies in Paris as a protest against the policies of President de Gaulle.
November 11 Violent demonstrations, called by the Front Algérie Française, mar Armistice Day celebrations in Algiers.
November 20 French commandos destroy a broadcasting transmitter in Morocco used by the FLN. The French government later compensates Morocco for the destruction.
November 24 Jean Morin replaces Paul Delouvrier as Delegate General in Algeria.
December 4 Five of the defendants in the Barricades Trial, Lagaillard, Susini, Ronda, Foral and Demarquet, flee to Spain.
December 8 Le Front Algérie Française calls a General Strike to protest President de Gaulle’s forthcoming visit to Algeria. December 9
President de Gaulle is greeted by violent protests from Algeria’s Europeans on his arrival for a 4 day visit to the country. Numerous arrests are made throughout Algeria. Hundreds of young Pied Noirs are trapped in roundups organized by the riot police (CRS) and the Gendarmerie Mobile and placed in internment. December 10
President de Gaulle, speaking to a meeting of officers at Blida airfield near Algiers, declares, “It is an Algerian Algeria, which, every day, becomes, by the force of things, more Algerian than the day before.” December 10
Moslems demonstrations, organized by the SAU (the rural equivalent of the SAS), begin with cries of Vive de Gaulle and Algérie Algérienne. Exhuberance rapidly degenerates into rioting. FLN flags are brandished. Europeans are lynched. Stores and homes are burned and their occupants massacred. The Army opens fire to restore order.
December 13 Three 3 days of rioting end with the arrest and internment of 680 Europeans and 250 Moslems, 123 dead and more than 600 injured.
December 15 The cabinet takes disciplinary measures against General Raoul Salan and fires civil servants who went on strike December 9th.
December 16 Ferhat Abbas launches an appeal to the Algerian people.
December 19 A Yugoslav freighter is seized in the Mediterranean with a cargo of arms destined for the FLN.
December 20 President de Gaulle declares that a Yes on the referendum will be a vote for the birth of an Algerian state with its own government, its own institutions and its own laws.
December 20 The United Nations General Assembly approves a resolution in favor of, “the right of the Algerian people to self-determination and independence” by a vote of 63 to 8 with 27 abstentions. December 22
Premier Michel Debré declares, “The Algeria envisaged by de Gaulle is an Algeria with a French flag and a French Army. For de Gaulle, the Algerian Republic is 30 years distant.” December 24
Le Front Algérie Française is dissolved.
December 27 Gerboise Rouge, the third and final atmospheric test of an atomic bomb in the Algerian Sahara, is conducted at Hammoudia.
December 29 Marshal Alphonse Juin is dismissed from the National Defense Council for taking a position in favor of French Algeria.
Principal Dates and Time Line of
Algeria 1958-1960
From Timelines of History
1958 January 2 Four people are killed in terrorist attacks at Sidi Bel Abbes. Salesman Isaac Azoulay and Sadia Portache are stabbed to death in separate incidents. Mr. Korchia, the proprietor, and customer Mireille Lopez are killed when a grenade is thrown into a grocery store.
January 5 FLN training camps are established in Egypt, Syria, Libya and Iraq adding to those already existing in Morocco and Tunisia.
January 6 Five people including two children ages 6 and 8 are wounded by a grenade explosion on bus in Bône.
January 10 The 2nd Régiment Parachustiste Coloniale loses 11 men including 3 who die from exposure during an operation in the mountains of Wilaya 4.
January 10 Two automobiles are machine-gunned in Tlemcen. André Emile Thibault, a corporate manager and assistant to the Mayor of Eugène-Etienne and 18 year old Emile Dinae are killed.
January 11 ALN units based at Sakiet Sidi Youssef, Tunisia cross the border and annihilate a French patrol. The rebels kill 14 French soldiers and take 5 prisoners before returning to Tunisia.
January 16 Ten people are wounded when a bomb explodes in the Préfecture in Melun, France. The device was planted near an office issuing visas for travel to North Africa.
January 17 A French airplane is shot down over the ALN base at Sakiet Sidi Youssef, Tunisia.
January 18 The Slovenia, a Yugoslav freighter carrying 150 tons of arms and ammunition, is seized by the French Navy off Oran.
January 19 Four people are killed and 41 wounded when a bomb explodes on the terrace of the Café de France in Sidi Bel Abbes.
January 20 Mr. Mallet and his 10 year old daughter Marie France are killed in a drive by machine-gunning at Sidi Bel Abbes. Mrs. Mallet and 7 year old Eliane Soussan are wounded in the attack.
January 20 Gendarme Delecamphe and his 6 year old son Gérard are killed when their car is ambushed along the highway in Guelma.
January 20 Two men are killed when a convoy of miners is attacked at Beni Saf.
January 22 The UGEMA (General Union of Algerian Moslem Students) which supports the FLN is dissolved.
January 22 Lieutenant Dubos, a prisoner of the FLN is shot near Bougie.
January 24 Colonel Jeanpierre’s 1st Régiment Étranger Parachustistes launches an operation against rebels on the Tunisian border. Five legionnaires and 92 rebels are killed in the ensuing battle. January 26
Charbit Saïd, a 52 year old tailor, is killed and 8 others are wounded by the explosion of a delayed action bomb in Beni Saf.
January 26 Seven people including 6 soldiers are killed when their truck hits a mine near Batna.
January 28 Abdelkader, the 22 year old son of Bachagha Boualam, is murdered by the rebels in the Ouarsenis.
January 31 FLN income from voluntary and extorted contributions reaches 600 million francs per month.
January 31 Casimir Chini, age 75, is shot in the head and killed at Blida.
February 2 Forty one people are wounded in a bomb attack on the Monoprix store in Constantine.
February 2 Madame Boyer is killed beside her husband, a mechanic, on the road to the Planetti Farm near Bougie.
February 4 The eastern outpost of the 8th Régiment Spahis Algérien is overtaken by FLN rebels. The Moslem soldiers are executed. The 15 Europeans are taken prisoner.
February 5 An FLN bomb explodes outside the French National Assembly in Paris.
February 6 Two people are killed in an exchange of shots between Algerians in Paris.
February 6 A cache of bombs and firearms is uncovered in the home of a Moslem in Lyon, France.
February 6 Seven members of an FLN tribunal are arrested in Douai, France.
February 8 French aircraft bomb the Tunisian village of Sakiet Sidi Youssef in reprisal against the FLN which flees to Tunisia after attacks against the French in Algeria. Sixty nine people are killed including several women and children.
February 9 Michel de Cara, his wife and two children are kidnapped and murdered by a band of rebels at Sidi Bel Abbes.
February 14 Seven people are injured when a missile hits the Municipal Casino in Constantine.
February 16 Industrialist Joseph Martinez is murdered by the terrorists at Lourmel.
February 21 Paris police arrest 277 Algerian Moslems including 102 members of the FLN’s network in the southern zone of the city. February 21
Sheik Ahmed Ameziane Mohamed, Iman of the Birmandreis Mosque, is killed by a terrorist in Algiers.
February 21 A 44 year old bridge and road worker is murdered in El Ouricia.
February 28 Tunisian President Habib Bourguiba orders a dozen French nationals expelled from Bizerté.
February 28 José Fuentes, Jean and Henri Grimal are murdered on their farms near Oran.
March 3 The first tanker of Saharan crude oil leaves Philippeville for metropolitan France.
March 3 Eight members of a Moslem family including four women and two children are massacred by a rebel gang at Metcha Chabersas near Constantine.
March 3 René Gros and Hamalaoui Bendjema are kidnapped during an attack on a convoy in the Constantine.
March 13 A large convoy carrying arms to the rebels is intercepted at Maillot.
March 14 The Paris Prefect of Police, Lahillonne, resigns and is replace by Maurice Papon, the Prefect of Constantine.
March 16 A French company is ambushed near Oued Foda in the Ouarsenis. The mutilated bodies of 28 men are recovered later. Five others have disappeared.
March 17 A combined air and ground assault on rebel bases along the Tunisian border kills 122 insurgents.
March 17 The Department of Bougie is organized around the city and four neighboring arrondissements taken from the Department of Sétif and the arrondissement of Djidjelli taken from the Department of Constantine.
March 17 The Department of Saïda is formed from the Telagh arrondisement of Oran, the Saïda arrondissement of Tiaret and the arrondissements of Ain Sefra, Géryville and Mecheria in the Saharan territories.
March 17 The arrondissement of Barika is taken from the Department of Batna and attached to that of Sétif.
March 17 The arrondissement of Tebessa is taken from the Department of Bône and attached to that of Batna.
March 19 Tunisian President Habib Bourguiba declares, “There are no Algerian rebels on Tunisian territory.” March 19
A grenade is thrown into a jewelry store in Morsott. One woman is killed and another wounded.
March 20 Twenty three men from the 18th Régiment Parachustiste Coloniale are killed in an ambush.
March 22 Colonel Si Cherif and his Harkis inflict heavy loses on the FLN during an operation in the Djebel Belgroune.
March 22 Charles Cartannaz, a 67 year old waiter at the Café Amouchas in Sétif, is murdered in his establishment.
March 22 Mathieu Rubio is killed in an attack on his farm near Oran. Rebels slit the 70 year old farmer’s throat. March 24
An FLN tribunal tries two retired Indigenous Affairs Officers in absentia and sentences them to death.
March 25 Raymond Lupinacci, head of cultivation on the Oued Kebir Estate near Bône, is cut down by machinegun fire.
March 26 Thirty one people including 11 children are killed when a terrorist throws a bomb into a crowd watching the motorcade of newly arrived Prefect Mr. Chapel pass along the Rue Caraman in Constantine.
March 30 Sixteen people including 10 children are wounded when a grenade is thrown into a market at Palestro.
March 30 A grenade explosion injures 14 people in Constantine.
March 30 The Martinez farm near Mascara is looted. Mr. Martinez, his wife and two daughters, ages 9 and 12, are kidnapped.
March 31 The headquarters of the Radical Republican and Radical Socialist Party in Montebello is heavily damaged by a bomb explosion.
April 1 Berki Aissa, President of the War Veterans Association, is mortally wounded by a bullet at Ain Beida.
April 1 Bernard Sadeler, Mayor of Clauzel, is killed in Guelma.
April 1 Mr. Montiel, a Cherchel farm manager, is murdered in front of his wife and 13 year old son.
April 5 Thirty people, 5 Europeans and 25 Moslems, are wounded in a grenade attack at Constantine.
April 5 A grenade explosion in Sétif wounds 4 Europeans and a Moslem.
April 8 Moulay Mostefa, Vice President of the Délégation Spéciale in Médéa is mortally wounded.
April 8 The President of the Délégation Spéciale in Chetouane is found murdered.
April 9 Félix Vallat, President of the Délégation Spéciale in Thiersville, and his wife are killed and two of their three children are wounded in an attack at Mascara.
April 9 A grenade attack in Jemmapes injures 3 European civilians and a soldier.
April 10 Sixty three year old farm manager Bernard Barcello is killed in field near Douaouda.
April 12 Six members of the Lambese Délégation Spéciale are savagely murdered in Batna.
April 13 A grenade explosion in Constantine injures 12 people.
April 13 Tlemcen landowner Jean Segura and his son Jean Antoine are killed along the road to Oran. The pregnant wife of the later is kidnapped by the killers.
April 14 Eight Algerian football players leave France to form an FLN team and go on a propaganda tour.
April 15 The Government of Premier Félix Gaillard resigns.
April 15 Raymond Notella, an engineer for Electricité et Gaz d’Algérie, is killed in a workshop at Djendjen. April 15
Farmer Clément Greck is killed by a rifle shot at Morris.
April 15 Farmer Jean Augier is killed while driving his car near Djidjelli.
April 17 A grenade is thrown at the American consulate in Algiers by members of the Mouvement Indépendant Français, a European counterterrorist organization.
April 20 Colonel Bigeard’s School of Subversive Warfare opens at Jeanne d'Arc near Philippeville. April 21
A Birtouta café owner is wounded by a terrorist grenade.
April 24 Madame Martin Gabriel is killed with an ax on her farm near Mascara.
April 25 A bomb explosion outside the Sub- Préfecture in Bayonne, France is followed by an attack against the central police station.
April 25 Three French conscripts captured by the FLN during an ambush on November 1, 1956 are executed in Tunisia.
April 26 70,000 people march in the streets of Algiers demanding a government of public safety.
April 27 A 1,000 man strong battalion of the ALN crosses the electrified fence along the Tunisian border south of Souk Ahras. A week long battle with French forces ends with 673 rebels killed and 45 captured. French losses total 87 dead and 131 wounded.
April 28 Kobus, the leader of Force K, a Moslem guerilla unit hostile to the FLN and armed by the French, is killed by his adjutant Ismail Rachid Rabah, who deserts to the FLN carrying the head of Kobus and 500 members of the battalion along with him. A 150 man company remains with the French.
April 28 Fellaghas massacre and burn 12 Moslems including 4 children ages 2 years to 14 months near downtown Tiaret.
April 28 Thirteen people are injured by a grenade explosion in front of the Hôtel des Palmiers in Orléansville.
April 29 The soldiers of Force K who deserted to Wilaya 4 are executed by the FLN.
April 29 The chief of military medicine for Bône, Doctor Colonel Andre, Doctor Lieutenant Gasnier and Nurse Chambou are wounded when their car is machine-gunned at Beni Ramasses.
April 30 The poster and petition campaign calling for General de Gaulle's return to power begins.
May 1 The French Army in Algeria numbers 384,000 men.
May 1 A young teacher, Jean Curtil, disappears while visiting the Roman ruins near Constantine.
May 2 Five members of Délégations Spéciale in Orania and loyal Moslems are savagely murdered. The victims are mutilated or hacked to pieces by their torturers.
May 4 The Battle of the Tunisian Frontier ends after nearly 4 months of combat during which the FLN lost nearly 4,000 men killed and 672 captured. French troops lost 279 killed and 758 wounded.
May 5 Robert Fouquereuau, the cook at a Heliopolis reception hall, is killed by shots from a revolver.
May 8 Robert Lacoste is decorated with the Cross of Military Valor at ceremonies marking VE Day in Algiers.
May 9 General Salan, with the agreement of Robert Lacoste, sends a telegram to President René Coty which ends, “The French Army would be unanimous in considering the abandonment of Algeria an insult and one cannot prejudge its reaction of despair. Mister President, only a Government firmly committed to maintaining our flag in Algeria can efface our anguish.” May 9
The FLN announces that it tried and executed 3 French soldiers in Tunisia on April 25th.
May 10 General Massu receives a petition to the President of the Republic by the junior officers of his division which ends, “We are certain that the people and the Army will never accept the abandonment of a part of the country... It is you and you alone who can still save it.” May 11
The Algiers weekly Dimanche Matin publishes Alain de Serigny’s appeal to General de Gaulle entitled, “PARLEZ... PARLEZ VITE MON GÉNÉRAL” (SPEAK, SPEAK QUICKLY MY GENERAL). May 11
Pierre Lagaillarde sums up his strategy during a meeting of the Group of Seven, “One takes the General Government by storm. One throws caution to the wind, the Army is obliged to intervene. It is not Salan who takes power, it is we who give it to him.” May 12
An emissary of the Pflimlin Cabinet arrives in Algiers to discuss a proposal to seek Moroccan and Tunisian mediation in starting negotiations with the FLN which would be granted quasi-official recognition.
May 12 Pierre Popie, liberal lawyer and defender of the FLN, returns the underground after passing a "valise" containing several million francs to the FLN.
May 12 Sixty nine rebels are put out of action during fighting southwest of Oued Zenatti.
May 13 Civilians and soldiers throughout Algeria demonstrate in protest against the execution of 3 French soldiers held prisoner in Tunisia.
In Algiers: † 1300 The American cultural center is ransacked by a mob.
† 1700 Demonstrators gather in front of the monument to the dead.
† 1800 Generals Salan and Massu lay wreaths at the monument to the dead before an audience of over 100,000 people.
† 1830 Pierre Lagaillarde incites the mob to attack the General Government building. Pierre Chaussade, Secretary General of the General Government, telephones Robert Lacoste in Paris, “It’s a riot, Mister Minister shall they fire? No, thats out of the question,” Lacoste shouts into the phone. † 1900 The General Government building is in the hands of the insurgents. General Salan appears on the balcony and is booed by the mob gathered in the plaza in front of the building. The demonstrators believe him hostile to French Algeria.
† 2100 General Massu announces the formation of a Committee of Public Safety in Algiers, under his presidency, which demands the formation of a Government of Public Safety, under the presidency of General de Gaulle, in Paris.
† 2345 General Massu reads the text of the Committee of Public Safety’s appeal to General de Gaulle before a crowd of 30,000 people. May 14
† 0100 General Salan crosses the Rubicon and takes charge of the insurgency he will recommence in 1961.
† 0200 From the balcony of the General Government, Colonel Jean Thomazo (called leather nose) explains the position of Salan to the acclaim of the 20,000 people still present in the plaza.
† 0230 The Committee of Public Safety gains strength and Léon Delbecque, an unconditional supporter of de Gaulle becomes its vice president.
† 0300 The Pflimlin Government gains the confidence of the Chamber of Deputies owing to the abstention of the Communists.
† 0600 Félix Gaillard turns over power to Pierre Pflimlin.
The strike continues in Algiers and the plaza which was nearly empty before dawn begins to refill.
May 14 All communication, by telephone, by air and by sea, between France and Algeria is interrupted.
May 14 General Salan sends President René Coty the following telegram, “Given the serious disorder which threatens the national unity in Algeria which cannot be stopped without the likelihood of bloodshed, the responsible military authorities believe there is a pressing need to call upon a national arbiter to form a Government of Public Safety... An appeal for calm from this high authority is the only means of restoring order.” May 14
The Unités Territoriales (militia) establish headquarters in the Oran city hall around noon then seize the radio station in the afternoon. The Oran Committee of Public Safety is formed and the militia occupies the Préfecture at the end of the day.
May 14 General de Gaulle announces that he is ready to assume the powers of the Republic.
May 14 The Prefect of the Grand Kabylie at Tizi-Ouzou orders the police to open fire if demonstrators attempt to seize public buildings.
May 14 General Paul Ely, Army Chief of Staff in Paris, resigns.
May 16 The Moslems rally en masse to the May 13 movement. There is fraternization in the plaza. Thousand of hands, European and Moslem, link to form and immense chain among the crowd.
May 17 Jacques Soustelle arrives in Algiers after slipping past police surveillance to leave France in secrecy.
May 17 Massu speaking to French Moslems declares, “Know that France will never abandon you! Together we will throw the enemy in service to the foreign out of our national territory. We will build an Algeria liberated from fear, a fraternal and humane Algeria where the words of equality, of fraternity, of justice will recover their full meaning. All of us who fought to affirm the permanence of France in Algeria, here, make that solemn oath.” May 18
An officer shouts from the balcony of the General Government, “We swear to defend French Algeria to the death if necessary.” Ten of thousands of hands rise and repeat after the officers, “We swear to defend French Algeria until death.” It becomes know as the Oath of May 13th. May 19
General de Gaulle holds a press conference at the Palais d’Orsay to announce that his services are at the disposal of the nation. May 19
In France, several generals including Maurice Challe are arrested.
May 22 Antoine Pinay pays a visit to Charles de Gaulle at Colombey les Deux Églises.
May 24 Commandant Vitasse, organizer of Plan Résurrection and Lagaillarde fly to Pau.
May 24 Paratroops favoring the May 13th movement seize the prefecture at Ajaccio, Corsica around 11 p.m.
May 26 Corsica, where the CRS (riot police) sent by Paris to reassert the constitutional order have joined the seditionists, rallies to the authority of Algiers.
May 26 General de Gaulle meets with Premier Pflimlin at Saint Cloud. The talks end without an agreement.
May 27 During the night Generals Salan and Massu signal Commandant Vitasse to implement Plan Resurrection beginning at 0230 on May 30th.
May 27 Despite the failure of his talks with Premier Pflimlin, General de Gaulle announces that he is pressing ahead with the formation of a republican government.
May 27 The Pflimlin Government receives an overwhelming vote of confidence including support from the Communists.
May 28 A call from the leftist political parties and the trade unions for demonstrations against de Gaulle brings 300 to 400,000 people into the streets of Paris.
May 28 General de Gaulle is forced to explain Plan Résurrection (the seizure of power in metropolitan France with the backing of paratroops from Algeria). Afterwards he tells departing paratroop officers, “Tell General Salan that what he did, what he will do is for the good of France.” May 28
Twenty people are injured when a grenade is thrown into a crowd of pro-French Moslems demonstrating at Mahouan near Sétif.
May 29 The Pflimlin Government resigns.
May 29 General Salan countermands his order to Commandant Vitasse. Plan Resurrection is cancelled for the moment.
May 29 Colonel Si Cherif, leader of the Free Moslem Armed Forces (FAFM), speaks from the balcony of the General Government in Algiers, “My pride is to be one of ten million French, who without distinction of race or religion are the sons of the same motherland, France.” May 29
El Moudjahid, the FLN newspaper, announces that Ramdane Abane, head of the Committee for Coordination and Execution, has been killed in combat. Abane was in fact murdered in Morocco on December 26, 1957 on orders from rivals within the FLN.
May 29 Colonel Jeanpierre of the 1st REP is killed along with a pilot and mechanic when their helicopter is shot down during a reconnaissance mission over Guelma. The fighting around Guelma leaves 112 French soldiers dead and 272 wounded. The FLN losses total 800 dead and 30 captured during the same engagement.
May 30 A declaration from the President of the Republic is read before a joint session of the National Assembly; “In the peril of the Nation and of the Republic, I turn to the most illustrious of Frenchmen, towards him, who during the darkest years of our history, was our leader in the reconquest of liberty and who having gained unanimous national support, refused dictatorship to restore the republic.” May 30
The National Assembly approves the nomination of de Gaulle to form a government.
May 30 General Salan reactivates Plan Resurrection, to be launched under one of three circumstances; if de Gaulle gives the order, if de Gaulle cannot form a government or if the Communist take-up arms.
June 1 During the debate on the nomination of the de Gaulle Government, François Mitterrand declares: "by right General de Gaulle will gain his powers from the national representation; in fact he holds it already by force."
June 1 Formation of the De Gaulle Government is approved by the National Assembly on a vote of 339 to 224.
June 2 Maître Mallem, an Algiers lawyer, declares during a meeting of the Algiers Committee of Public Safety, “In Algeria, the Crémieux decree, allowed a community to integrate with French society without obstructing the freedom to worship. It is important to give to the May 13th restoration movement full benefit of the dash which he raised to uproot the centuries of prejudices and habits which separate the population of the Moslem confession from modern life. The greatest glory of Kemal Atatürk is not to have revealed Aziyadé, but to have beaten in breach of the centuries of traditions. It is important to break a way of life patterned on fixed and anachronistic legislation.
Such a rupture does not imply an attack on the free exercise of worship. However the ancestral way of life must be abandoned, because it creates a gap between the various communities and carries in it a cause of dissension."
June 2 The civil authorities modify the matrimonial regulations pertaining to Moslems who henceforth may no longer repudiate their wives.
June 4 General de Gaulle speaks from the balcony of the General Government in Algiers. To the several hundred thousand people gathered below, he declares, “Je vous ai compris (I have understood you).... well! of all that, I take of it note in the name of France and I declare, that from today, France considers that, in all Algeria, there is only one category of inhabitants: there are only the entirely French... with the same rights and the same duties." June 5
The 20th Battalion of the Unités Territoriales is formed in the Algiers Casbah. The 1,200 man force is 35% Moslem.
June 6 At Mostaganem, General de Gaulle ends his speech, “Vive Mostaganem! Vive l'Algérie française! Vive la République! Vive la France!” June 11
General Raoul Salan is named Delegate General and Commander in Chief in Algeria.
June 11 Private André Gelos is freed by the Tirailleurs Algériens, his companion in captivity, Guillemot, was executed by their guards during the course of the battle with the Tirailleurs.
June 15 Six people are wounded in 4 grenade attacks at Constantine.
June 16 General Massu is appointed Prefect of Algiers.
June 18 The FLN issues a directive prohibiting registration for or participation in elections and demanding that a General Strike be observed during the voting under penalty of death.
June 20 Nineteen people are injured by a grenade thrown into a café on the Clos Salembier in Algiers.
June 21 General Salan orders the release of 130 internees held at Beni Messous.
June 23 Farm worker François Soriano is savagely murdered with a knife at El Ancor.
June 24 Thirteen men of the 6th Régiment Parachutiste Coloniale are killed in an ambush.
June 27 A grenade explodes in the Gonzales family apartment in Sidi Bel Abbes killing one person and wounding two.
June 27 Lucien Bernabeau, who was wounded in a bomb explosion along with 9 other victims, dies in the hospital at Relizane.
June 28 The Mayor of Algiers, Jacques Chevalier, resigns. He will be replaced by a special delegation two days later.
June 30 A French photographer and a school teacher are kidnapped near Colomb Bechar.
June 30 Retired baker Joseph Saurel is shot in the back and killed at Desaix.
July 1 Twenty two people, 11 Europeans and 11 Moslems, are wounded by a grenade explosion in the Chartres Market, Algiers.
July 4 Moslem women are granted suffrage and their own electoral college in Algeria.
July 9 Nine diners are injured by a grenade explosion in a Philippeville restaurant.
July 10 The French Army attacks the Bellounis maquis to end the exactions of its ally, the MNA. Bellounis is killed on July 14th. Sporadic fighting continues until July 28th when his body is recovered at Bou Saada. The maquis is annihilated except for a small band that escapes to join the FLN.
July 11 Three Frenchmen are killed and two wounded when rival MNA and FLN terrorists exchange shots in Paris.
July 14 Delegations of Moslem veterans from Algeria and North African troops participate in the Paris Bastille Day parade.
July 15 Moise Chemia, verger at Temple Midrache, is killed and 35 others are wounded in 4 terrorist attacks in Constantine.
July 15 Twenty people are injured in grenade attacks at Oran.
July 23 French francs are circulated in Algeria and Algerian banknotes are now accepted in metropolitan France. Algerian coins are withdrawn from circulation and replaced by French ones.
July 25 The Algerian railways are merged with the French National Railways (SNCF).
August 10 Five year old Pascale Orcini is killed and 24 others are wounded when 2 grenades explode in downtown Saida.
August 10 Thirteen people are wounded when a grenade explodes in an Oran cinéma.
August 10 Three teenagers are killed and 3 other Europeans are wounded in drive by machine-gunning at Kolea.
August 16 Twenty five Moslems, men, women and children are massacred by a band of rebels on the Honaine Estate near Algiers .
August 16 Seven people including a young girl are wounded when rebels open fire on bathers at a beach near Tenes.
August 16 An Algerian is killed on a Paris street by a fellow Moslem who also wounds 3 bystanders including 6 year old Martine Bouland.
August 20 FLN agents blow up 4 gasoline storage tanks in Rouen, France.
August 20 In France, the General Association of Algerian Workers, an FLN front group, is dissolved.
August 24 At midnight , the FLN goes on the offensive throughout metropolitan France. Petroleum depots are arsoned at Rouen, Port La Nouvelle and Alès. Several police stations and barracks are machine gunned. Seven gendarmes are killed and four are seriously injured. Sabotage derails a train on the railway near Cagnes sur Mer.
August 24 FLN commandos set forest fires in the department of Var to distract firefighters from the fire they are about to set at the Mourepaine fuel depot in suburban Marseilles. The Mourepaine fire burns for ten days.
August 24 Marceau Fargeon is shot in the head and killed while fishing at Courbet Marine.
August 24 Pédro Sébastien Marques, age 59, is killed while working in his field near Lamoricière.
August 25 Three policemen are killed and another is wounded during an attack in the garage of the Paris Préfecture of Police.
August 25 An FLN gang kills four policemen during an attack on a munitions plant in suburban Paris.
August 25 Four people are killed, 4 wounded and 10 go missing in a series of attacks across Algeria.
August 25 A terrorist is blown up by his own bomb while preparing to attack the Esso refinery at Notre Dame de Gravenchon.
August 26 Eight policemen are wounded in attacks by an FLN gang in Marseilles.
August 26 Explosives are discovered at Cape Pinede, Saint Louis, Aygalades, Lavera, Le Havre and Frontignan.
August 26 Seven people are killed including 4 policemen in a series of machine-gunnings aimed at police stations and barracks across metropolitan France.
August 26 Terrorists kill a Paris policeman and wound 3 others.
August 26 Two Algerian Moslems are killed when the explosives they are carrying detonate in the Department of Isère, France.
August 27 A curfew is imposed on Algerians in the Department of the Seine (Paris).
August 27 Three Algerians attack a French officer in a hallway of the Paris métro.
August 30 An Algerian Moslem is mortally wounded by a soldier in Paris. A bystander Madame Darcier is wounded and soldier Raymond Ras is stabbed.
September 1 The French Army in Algeria numbers 442,000 men.
September 1 The Simca automobile works at Poissy is the target of arsonists.
September 3 A curfew is imposed on Algerians in the French Department of Rhône.
September 3 Saboteurs resume their attempts to damage oil storage facilities at Alès, France.
September 5 A violent explosion rocks the steamer President Cazalet en route from Bône to Marseilles. Seven people are injured. The FLN denies responsibility for the attack.
September 6 Rural guard Pruvost and his wife are murdered in their home at Takdempt near Dellys.
September 8 A grenade explosion wounds 20 patrons of an art exhibition at Bouira.
September 9 The FLN establishes the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic (GPRA).
September 9 Terrorists sabotage the railway in the Department of Drome and attack cafés in several metropolitan French towns.
September 12 A grenade and dynamite are thrown into a Marseilles gasworks but fail to explode.
September 12 An explosive charge is discovered at Aygalades.
September 14 Terrorists attempt sabotage in metropolitan France on the Lyon-Bordeaux express, in the De Brotteaux station and the Nimes Courbessac station.
September 14 Three soldiers are wounded at Joinville and an officer is wounded at Metz, France.
September 14 A grenade is thrown into a Marseilles bar frequented by the Communists.
September 15 An FLN commando unit opens fire on a car carrying Information Minister Jacques Soustelle in Paris. A civilian is killed and 3 are wounded in the ensuing exchange of fire between the police and the assassins.
September 15 Three people are injured when a bomb explodes in the Bouches du Rhone Préfecture in Marseilles.
September 15 Two farms near Maubeuge are burnt.
September 15 A railway signal between Milhaud and Bernis in the Department of Gard is sabotaged.
September 15 Four police squad cars are machine-gunned in Paris.
September 15 Several shots are fired at the La Capelette police station in Marseille.
September 16 Terrorist attacks continue in metropolitan France at Paris, Le Havre and Sèvres.
September 17 Messali Hadj survives an FLN attack but his body guard is killed.
September 17 The FLN offensive in metropolitan France continues. Bombs explode in a butane gas depot in Paris and a postal parcel in Marseilles. Fires are set in Compiègne and near Lille. Terrorist stage machinegun attacks in Lyon.
September 18 FLN divers attempting to plant explosive charges on the cruiser Jean Bart are found drowned in Toulon harbor.
September 19 Father Juquet, a member of the White Fathers of Africa, is gravely wounded by the rebels on the road from Sétif to Kerrata.
September 19 One person is killed and 8 wounded in a grenade attack on an Algiers bar.
September 20 A mass grave containing the bodies of 400 rebels killed on orders from Amirouche is uncovered.
September 21 A seven year old child is killed and 5 other people are wounded when terrorists open fire on a police patrol in Sidi Bel Abbes.
September 21 An FLN bomb is discovered on the third stage of the Eiffel Tower and disarmed.
September 22 Two people are killed and 20 wounded in an explosion set off by terrorists at the Kleber-Colombes Tire Factory near Paris.
September 23 The FLN mounts a series of attacks in metropolitan France; a soldier survives a fusillade in Marseilles, a time bomb is found near the broadcasting transmitters in the Eiffel Tower, three terrorists are cut down by police at Aubervilliers, a terrorist gang attacks workers at the Simca factory in Nanterre and the Vitry electric generating station is put on alert.
September 23 A grenade explosion wounds 16 people including 3 children in Algiers.
September 26 The FLN renews its threats against the referendum and calls for a General Strike. “Whoever leaves his home on September 28th will be cut down by the FLN.” September 27
Algerian terrorists kill tow policemen and seriously injure three others in Rouen, France.
September 27 An acetylene plant at Courneuve, France is attacked with plastic explosive.
September 28 In Algeria, 3,476,394 voters ignore FLN threats to vote in the referendum. The Constitution of the Fifth Republic is approved by 95% of the Algerian electorate (79% in metropolitan France). Moslem women Algeria vote for the first time.
October 1 The French Army in Algeria numbers 400,000 men.
October 3 Businessman Alexandre Panicucchi is arrested in Philippeville for collusion with the FLN.
October 6 Captain Jacques Tedde is killed by the rebels while leading a party of spear fishermen between Cape De Garde and Herbillon.
October 6 Mr. Justen, a guard at the Aéroclub d'Ain-Taya, is mortally wounded in an ambush.
October 9 The Government orders members of the military to resign from the Committee of Public Safety.
October 15 The defendants on trial for the 1957 bazooka attack on General Salan are found guilty. René Kovacs, escaped, is sentenced to death; Philippe Castille to 10 years at hard labor; four others are given 5 to 6 years in prison. Some will escape. Others are freed during the April 1961 putsch. All of them eventually join the OAS which will be led by Salan, their intended victim.
October 17 Six gendarmes are killed in an ambush near Sétif.
October 19 Abbé Carteron, alias Monsieur Albert, thought to be the treasurer of the FLN social organization in the Lyon region is brought before a judge of instruction at Lyon, France.
October 19 Two clergymen are arrested in Lyon on charges of aiding the FLN.
October 20 Antoinette Idjeri, a young Moslem born in France and an FLN liason in Marseilles, is arrested in Paris.
October 20 The FLN frees 4 French prisoners.
October 23 General de Gaulle offers the FLN a “Peace of the Brave”. October 23
Madame Munoz receives a citation in the orders of the division, for heroic conduct. "She repulsed two attacks against the farm she managed at St. Denis Du Sig and thanks to the alert she gave permitted the annihilation of the outlaws. This citation carries the attribution of the Croix de la Valeur Militaire.” October 25
The FLN rejects General de Gaulle’s peace proposal. October 26
General Salan orders Colonel Bigeard transferred to metropolitan France following a policy dispute.
October 27 Six people are wounded by a grenade explosion in an Algiers café.
October 29 General Salan marks Armistice Day by ordering the release of 2,800 FLN internees.
October 30 The explosion of two booby trapped shells kills 12 people including 3 children and wounds 30 others in Tiaret.
November 3 Louis Berthier, a 44 year old industrialist, son of the Mayor of Birkadem, and his employee, Lucien Boyer, are grievously wounded by revolver fire in Algiers.
November 6 A gendarme and a village constable are killed in Matemore.
November 9 Pierre Toux, a Bugeaud school principal, Second Lieutenants Alain Scherrer and Alain Brunaud are killed by the fellaghas.
November 10 Six passengers are killed and 13 wounded when a train hits a mine on the Djelfa line near Blida.
November 13 Sheik Lakhdari Abdellali, Iman of the Sidi El Kettani Mosque, is wounded by revolver shots in Constantine.
November 15 A group of FLN Colonels headed by Lamouri plot the elimination of Belkacem Krim, Abdelhafid Boussouf and Lakhdar Ben Tobbal.
November 17 Si Azedine, military commander of Wilaya 4, is wounded in combat and taken prisoner by the 3rd Régiment Parachutiste Coloniale southeast of Palestro.
November 19 Belkacem Krim has Colonel Lamouri and 50 FLN dissidents arrested and taken to Kef in Tunisia where they are later tried and many are executed.
November 19 Two fishermen are attacked by rebels hiding in the bush near Philippeville. François Di Lorio, age 63, is killed. His brother manages to escape.
November 22 FLN terrorists torture and mutilate 4 Moslems at La Ciotat, France. The bodies are found in a cistern.
November 22 The skeletal remains of two workmen kidnapped by the fellaghas in July 1956 are found near Philippeville.
November 25 General Salan recalls Colonel Bigeard to Algeria. Bigeard is sent to Saïda to oversee the training of two elite regiments. Bigeard also creates commando unit Georges which is composed of former FLN rebels.
November 27 Six people including 4 soldiers are killed when the trucks they are riding in are hit by mortar shells near Orléansville.
November 27 Two shop foremen are mortally wounded by a burst of machinegun fire in Kerrata.
November 30 Si Azedine travels to Palestro under military escort to deliver a letter to the chief of the region. Upon his return, he addresses a declaration to the French authorities, “Without disavowing my past, I am determined to put an end to this fratricidal fight and wish to devote myself to a new Algeria.” November 30
Legislative elections are conducted in Algeria.
December 1 Si Azedine, with the accord with the French authorities, travels through Wilaya 1 in an effort to establish contact with the regional leader, Captain Maoussa.
December 3 General de Gaulle visits the iron mines at Ouenza which produce 2.3 billion tons of ore annually.
December 3 Three French prisoners are released by the FLN.
December 4 Trains in Orania and the Constantine are badly damaged when they hit mines but no one is injured.
December 4 Si Azedine journeys to Wilaya IV in an attempt to contact Colonel Si M'Hamed.
December 4 Emile Bixio, owner of the Touring Hotel, is kidnapped from his home in Batna by persons unknown.
December 4 Tax collector Marcel Sellens is killed by a burst of machinegun fire outside Cherchel.
December 7 The new director of the Ain Barbar Mines, Yves de Saint Denis, and an employee are killed by the rebels in Bône. His predecessor had also been murdered.
December 8 Si Azedine meets with Si Salah then arrested and taken to Tunis by Si Tayeb, the head of the Wilaya IV intelligence service.
December 9 Tirailleurs Sénégalais from Guinea are demobilized and repatriated to their country which was given immediate independence after voting no on the referendum.
December 12 General Raoul Salan is replaced as Delegate General by Paul Delouvrier and as Commander in Chief in Algeria by General Maurice Challe.
December 15 Colonel Henri Debrus, Commandant Robert Monnier and Lieutenant Robert Clausse win the Algiers to Capetown automobile rally and set a record that stands until 1970.
December 19 General Salan leaves Algiers, where an immense crowd calls for his retention, to assume his new post of Inspector General of the Army.
December 21 General De Gaulle is elected President of the Republic and of the French Community by the Electoral College.
December 23 President De Gaulle names General Salan Military Governor of Paris as well as Inspector General of the Army.
December 30 Ten Frenchmen including 4 soldiers are wounded when a grenade explodes in the Terminus Bar at Sidi Bel Abbes.
December 30 Four Moslems including a 10 year old child are injured when a grenade explodes in a street in the Casbah of Algiers.
December 30 Five soldiers are killed and 20 wounded when their truck hits a mine near Orléansville.
1959 January 6 Captain Graziani, Algiers native and celebrated Para of the Battle of Algiers, is killed while leading his company on an operation with the 27th DIA in Grande Kabylia. FLN losses in the operation total 294 dead and 4 captured.
January 8 Charles de Gaulle succeeds René Coty as President of the French Republic.
January 9 The Government of Michel Debré takes office. The Premier delivers a policy address stating, “It is under French sovereignty that Algeria will develop ... the offer of cease fire remains valid but their will be no political negotiation.” January 11
Units of the 61st RAA trap a rebel band southwest of Port Gueydon near Ighil Ouhmani killing 40 and capturing 3.
January 13 Clemency is granted to FLN prisoners. All those condemned to death are pardoned. 7,000 internees are released. Ahmed Ben Bella and his fellow prisoners are transferred from Santé prison to a fortified enclosure on the Ile d'Aix.
January 14 Funeral services are held at Maillot hospital in Algiers for 22 French soldiers killed in combat.
January 30 President de Gaulle renews his offer of peace in Algeria.
February 6 Plan Challe is implemented in the Saïda region near Oran. 1,764 rebels will be killed, 516 captured and 131 will desert to the French side during the operation.
February 7 The Inspectorate General of Defense, directed by General Salan, is disbanded.
February 8 Colonel Antoine Argoud assumes command as Chief of Staff of the Algiers Army Corps.
February 11 An attempt by the rebels to cross the electrified fence along the border with Tunisia in the Morsott region is checked. 150 of the intruders are killed, 25 captured and 33 escape back into Tunisia.
February 20 Plan Challe continues in the Ouarsenis region. Three divisions along with air support kill 52 FLN rebels and capture 30 others.
February 25 During an operation in the Azazga sector, the 27th BCA traps a band of rebels which escapes by freeing its prisoner, the Curé of Akbou who was kidnapped by the FLN 10 days earlier.
February 26 Thousands of leaflets urging the fellaghas to accept President de Gaulle’s Peace of the Brave are dropped on the mountains. March 4
American photojournalist Flint Kellens and his German interpreter Raymond Aircle are killed when their car is ambushed by the FLN near the Col du Juif on the highway between the Moroccan border and Oran. Another photographer is seriously wounded in the attack.
March 7 The arrondissement of Tebessa is taken from the Department of Batna and returned to Bône.
March 8 The Czech freighter Lidice is stopped while transporting arms and munitions to the FLN.
March 9 Twelve FLN rebels are killed and 10 captured during an operation in the Frenda sector of the Ouarsenis region.
March 16 Colonels Lamouri, Laskri Amara, Nouaraoua and certain of their partisans, who plotted against the leadership of the FLN, are shot at Tunis. Ahmed Draria, sentenced to prison for his role in the plot, will become head of the Sûreté Algérienne in 1962.
March 17 Aumale and three neighboring arrondissements are separated from the Department of Batna and organized as new department.
March 21 FLN Captain Ali Hambli along with 130 of his men agrees to accept the Peace of the Brave and surrenders to the 3rd Hussards. Twenty dissidents among the rebels are executed.
March 27 An operation near Bidon V on the Moroccan border south of Colomb Bechar ends with 9 rebels killed including Colonel Lofti, the leader of Wilaya 5, his assistant commander Tahar and their body guards.
March 28 Colonel Aït Hamouda Amirouche, commander of FLN Wilaya III in Kabylia and Colonel El Haouès Ben Abdelkader, commander of FLN Wilaya VI in the Sahara, are killed by counter-insurgents during an operation in the djebel Tsameur north of Bou Saada.
April 2 Captain Ali Hambli, now allied with the French, leads a 60 man force on a raid against the ALN camp at Ghardimaou, Tunisia.
April 10 The FLN machine guns the patrons of a café in Saint Denis near Paris. Boughera El Ouafi, a 61 year old native of Constantine and winner of the marathon in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, is among those killed.
April 10 Police in metropolitan France arrest 465 FLN supporters.
April 15 Bouharaoua becomes the first Moslem mayor of Algiers under French rule.
April 15 Operation Courroie commences in the Algiers region.
April 21 President de Gaulle pardons 30 FLN prisoners held under sentence of death.
April 23 An officer is killed and 5 soldiers are wounded when a column of the 13th Cavalry Regiment unwittingly enters a minefield planted by the FLN near Azazga.
April 24 A mass grave containing 37 bodies is uncovered east of Tablat. They are the bodies of rebels purged by Amirouche, the leader of Wilaya 3 according to information obtained from interrogation of FLN held prisoner by the French.
April 25 A rebel band is annihilated near Molière in the djebel Zerzour of the Ouarsenis region. 92 are killed and 27 captured.
April 29 President de Gaulle, declares, "The Algeria of papa is dead. If one does not understand that, one will die with it." in an interview with Pierre Laffont, editor of l'Echo d'Oran
May 5 Colonel Si M'Hamed, chief of Wilaya IV, mysteriously disappears.
May 13 The anniversary of the May 13th Revolt is observed as a public holiday for the first and last time. A crowd of over 100,000 people gather in Algiers to hear General Massu declare, “It is the solemn undertaking of the Army to maintain Algeria as French territory.” The new Mayor of Algiers, Bouharaoua, follows with a speech in which he declares, “This Algeria, French province, will soon know, for all her sons, thanks to the effort expended on behalf of all France by General de Gaulle.”May 15
French troops acting on intelligence reports undertake an operation in the Ouarsenis. FLN losses include 70 killed, 10 wounded and 5 captured.
May 20 Two Europeans taken prisoner by the FLN at an outpost of the 8th Régiment Spahis Algérien are released after spending over a year in captivity. Thirteen others died in captivity.
June 4 An air patrol spots a suspected rebel caravan in the western Grand Erg. Paratroops are dropped and a brief battle ensues. Five rebels are killed and camels loaded with 4.5 tons of munitions and supplies are recovered.
June 11 Tirailleurs Algériens free Private André Gelos from imprisonment by the FLN, his fellow captive, Guillemot, was executed by their guards.
June 24 Thirty eight members of a rebel band sighted near Bône are killed and 9 captured. Seven rebels escape but are tracked down and killed the next day.
July 8 - 20 Operation Étincelle is conducted in the Hodna region.
July 9 La Mouvement pour la Communauté (MPC) is created to provide a legal front for the activities of agents of the SAC and eventually spearheads the effort to crush the OAS.
July 15 The 11th BT is ambushed in the Hodna region. 19 men are killed in action.
July 22 – August 8 Operation Jumelles is conducted in the Kabylie. 98 FLN rebels are killed and 13 captured.
July 27 President de Gaulle begins a month long tour of Algeria.
July 31 Premier Michel Debré declares, “The departments of Algeria and the Sahara form a part of the Republic the same as the metropolitan departments. If France left Algeria, it would be a civil war.” August 1
Twenty nine soldiers of the 18th Régiment Parachustiste Coloniale are killed in an ambush.
August 11 Operation Pierres Précieuses gets underway in the Petite Kabylie.
August 26 The Hassi Messaoud - Bougie petroleum pipeline is placed in service.
August 27 Colonel Bigeard reports that President de Gaulle has promised him, “De Gaulle will never treat with the assassins and the FLN flag will not fly over Algiers.” September 3
The Commune of Borley la Sapie is transferred from the jurisdiction of the Miliana arrondissement in the Department of Orléansville to the Department of Médéa.
September 13 A bomb explodes on board the German ship Brussard off the Dutch coast. The French Special Services suspect the freighter of carrying arms to the FLN in Algeria.
September 15 The FLN issues instructions in its underground bulletin, "However the Algerian patriot is treated by the police or the Army, when brought before a judge, he will declare without giving too many details, that he was beaten and tortured, that he was shocked with electricity. ... Each arrested patriot will not hesitate to burn himself with a cigarette or beat himself in order to have marks to show the judge. These instructions must be learnt by heart, spread by word and the bulletin destroyed at once.” September 16
President de Gaulle proposes self-determination for Algeria with three options; secession, integration with France and association.
September 17 A five member FLN commando unit attempts to assassinate Messali Hadj, head of the rival Mouvement National Algérien in Chantilly, France. Police kill two of the terrorists.
September 18 The Army covers the walls of Algiers with posters inscribes “Algérie française toujours”. September 19
La Rassemblement pour l'Algérie Française (Rally for French Algeria) is formed under the leadership of Georges Bidault.
September 24 Nine Frenchmen are killed and 12 others wounded in the explosion of bombs planted or thrown by the FLN at various locations throughout Algeria.
October 3 War veterans in metropolitan France demonstrate in favor of French Algeria.
October 9 An Alouette II helicopter carrying Generals Gilles, Massu and Saint Hillier crashes on take off from a base in the Ouarsenis. All on board escape unscathed.
October 26 Marshal Alphonse Juin, a native of Bône, declares his opposition to Gaullist Algerian policies in a letter addressed to the President.
November 7 The Department of Aumale is suppressed. The arrondissements of Aumale, Tablat and Bou Saada are attached to the Department of Médéa and Ouled Djellal is returned to the Department of Batna.
November 7 The Department of Bougie is suppressed and its arrondissements are returned to their former jurisdictions under the departments of Constantine and Sétif.
November 7 The arrondissement of Barika is taken from the Department of Sétif and returned to Batna.
November 7 The arrondissement of Telagh is taken from the Department of Saïda and returned to Oran.
November 9 Sergeant Gaffory, Privates Cinquini and Laurent Ferrero and a civilian from Bordj Bou Arreridj, held prisoner by the FLN in a cave in the Batna region for 11 months, are freed by troops of the 7th Régiment de Tirailleurs Algérien. A Moslem corporal taken prisoner with them was executed.
November 10 President de Gaulle renews his offer of self-determination and a cease fire to the FLN.
November 20 The Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic designates Amhed Ben Bella and his fellow prisoners as their negotiators. President de Gaulle rejects this proposal.
December 15 Marie Claire and Olivier Gendebien finish second in the last Algiers to Capetown automobile rally.
December 24 The Danish freighter Granita is stopped while carrying 40 tons of TNT to the FLN.
December 25 An FLN bomb explodes in the Rue d'Isly, Algiers, killing 3 people and injuring 40.
December 28 Eight of the Algerian Communist Party’s 39 member Central Committee are in FLN guerilla groups and 21 others are in prison or dead.
1960 January 4 Albert Camus is killed an automobile accident at Petit Villeblev, France.
January 6 Intelligence services radio monitors, intercept a series of messages, transmitted between Si Salah, the leader of Wilaya 4 (Algiers), and the FLN general staff at Oujda in which he expounds on the weariness an boredom of his guerillas and threatens to accept de Gaulle’s “Peace of the Brave” offer if the situation does not improve. January 15
Four soldiers are killed when 2 SAS trucks are ambushed near Le Chenoua.
January 18 A German newspaper publishes an interview with General Massu in which he is quoted as making several disrespectful remarks in regards to President de Gaulle. Massu denies the making the remarks attributed to him.
January 19 General Massu is recalled to Paris and banned from returning to Algeria.
January 20 Georges Bidault is expelled from Algeria.
January 22 General Crépin replaces General Massu as commander of the Algiers Army Corps.
January 24 In Algiers, lawyers Pierre Lagaillarde and Jean Meningaut, café owner Joe Ortiz and Doctor Jean Claude Perez of the FNF organize demonstrations to protest General Massu’s dismissal. Around 6 p.m. , a confrontation between riot police and demonstrators, including armed units of the Bab el Oued and Casbah Unités Territoriales, erupts. The week long battle of the “barricades” will leave 8 gendarmes and 11 protesters dead; 85 police and 56 demonstrators wounded. January 24
In Oran, May 13th Union councilman Villeneuve calls on the citizenry to with draw their barricades and begin a General Strike.
January 24 Fourteen people are killed and 123 are wounded in attacks by rightwing extremists targeting Algiers gendarmes.
January 27 Philippe Castille, who fired a bazooka shell at General Salan, escapes from prison and reaches France.
January 28 General Challe and Paul Delouvrier leave Algiers for the safety of a base at Régghaïa.
January 28 Colonel Bigeard speaking at Saïda asks, “What fight do the men of the barricades and the Army want, the certainty that their fight is not in vain. Then the barricades will disappear and together we will finish the fight against the real rebellion.” January 30
Algerian deputies Biaggia and Kaouah are arrested in Paris for sympathizing with the insurgents on the barricades.
February 1 The insurgents leave their barricades behind Lagaillard and their colors and surrender to to the 1st Régiment Étranger des Parachustistes.
February 1 Colonel Bigeard is disciplined for his remarks regarding the barricades episode. He is ordered to leave Algeria and eventually transferred to a post in the Central African Republic.
February 2 Diehards among the insurrectionist refuse to surrender their arms and regroup under the name of Alcazar commandos, a reference to the fierce resistance put on by the Nationalists defenders of the Alcazar during the Spanish Civil War.
February 3 Commandant Sapin-Lignières, commander of the Algiers Sahel Unités Territoriales is arrested along with Captain Marcel Ronda; Alain de Sérigny, editor of l'Echo d'Alger, as well as Féral, Jean Claude Perez,Lefebvre, Demarquet, Arnoud, Jean Jacques Susini, Trappe and Sanne. The defendants will be acquitted at trial on March 3, 1961 but placed under administrative internment.
February 3 Sanctions are imposed on numerous officers in Algeria and in France including Colonel Jean Gardes for expressing sympathy towards the insurrectionists. They remain free on bail.
February 3 Joseph Ortiz, Meningaud, Robert Martel and Raymond Laquières remain fugitives.
February 4 President de Gaulle disbands the Army Psychological Warfare Bureau for sympathizing with the insurgents on the barricades.
February 5 In the wake of the Barricades Affair, Jacques Soustelle and Bernard Cornut Gentille (future Mayor of Cannes) are dismissed for sympathizing with the insurrections. Numerous Generals and Colonels are transferred including Jacques Faure, Marcel Bigeard, Broizat and Gracieux.
February 10 The Unités Territoriales in Algeria are dissolved. Some units had participated in the Barricades Insurrection.
February 13 Gerboise Bleue, the first test of a French atomic bomb, is conducted at the Reggane Oasis in the Sahara 700 kilometers south of Colomb Bechar. The plutonium fission device detonates atop a 105 meter tower at 0704 GMT. The resulting explosion, an estimated 60-70 kilotons, is the most powerful ever achieved by a nuclear power in its first attempt.
February 14 General Massu declares, “The Army does not cease to claim that a state of war exists, that adversaries in uniform are to be treated as prisoners of war. When will the terrorists in civil [garb]... who randomly kill defenseless people. It has been months since we asked that the laws of war be applied to them, that they be considers franc-tireurs and shot." He continues, “Certain generals are given to support with the greatest abnegation, the misdeeds of others which cause hundreds of people to perish, rather than dirty their hands?” Finally, “the rights of the innocent are greater than those of the guilty.” March 3
President de Gaulle lands at Telergma to begin a short tour of Algeria.
March 5 President de Gaulle speaking at Azziz near Aumale declares, “ Algeria will be Algerian...she will remain tied to France… there are thousands of Europeans who have the right to be here and to remain here. There are 400,000 Moslems who work in France and who provide the livelihood of 3 million Moslems here...France, alone, is capable of developing Algeria.” March 10
General Crépin replaces General Challe as Commander in Chief of the Army in Algeria.
March 17 Three emissaries of Wilaya 4 leader Si Salah meet secretly with the Cadi of Médéa to arrange a rendezvous with the French authorities.
March 28 At the end of the afternoon, 3 emissaries of Si Salah meet with 2 of President de Gaulle’s close collaborators in the Prefecture of Médéa. The wilaya’s policy directors tell the French emissaries, “We want peace but for us it is neither defeat nor surrender. We represent our comrades, combatants of the maquis and we are ready to laydown our weapons if it does not resemble a surrender. What we desire is an end to European domination and an Algerian future developed in close cooperation between Algerians of Moslem and European origin. Everyone has a right to live in peace in his country. We desire a close cohabitation with the Europeans and important cooperation with France.” March 31
French representatives and emissaries of Wilaya 4, comprising 75% of the rebel forces within Algeria, reach an accord on the conditions for a cease fire in line with the position outlined at Médéa 3 days earlier. The emissaries of Si Salah request a suspension of French military operations in Wilaya 4 for a period of 8 weeks to permit contact with the other wilayas.
April 1 Gerboise Blanche, a second French nuclear weapons test, is conducted at Reggane. The surface detonation produces an explosion equivalent to <20 kilotons of TNT.
April 1 The Yugoslav freighter Slovenia is stopped by the French Navy while transporting arms and munitions.
April 12 General Challe, Commander in Chief of the Army in Algeria, refuses to accept Premier Michel Debré’s order to leave Algeria within 48 hours along with the Grand Cordon of the Legion of Honor that Debré sends him. April 23
General Challe leaves Algeria to become French ambassador to NATO.
April 29 French authorities inform Belkacem Krim that a meeting must take place with Si Salah at Médéa.
May 1 General Crépin assumes command of the Army in Algeria.
May 4 In Paris, an FLN terrorist fires 5 shots wounding Deputy Robert Abdesselam.
May 6 A 270 man battalion of the ALN crosses the Moroccan frontier east of Aïn Seffra is trapped at Djebel M’zi. French forces kill 74 and capture 23 of the rebels. French losses total 12 dead and 20 wounded. May 31
The protagonists in the Si Salah affair resume talks at the Médéa prefecture. The rebels confirm their acceptance of the ceasefire accords on condition that they meet with a high ranking state official to conclude the final pact.
June 1 The Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic establishes a diplomatic mission in China.
June 5 The French War Veterans Association (ACUF) passes a resolution in favor of bestowing the title of “combattant” on the veterans of the rebellion in French North Africa. The move is taken during a session of the association’s annual congress at Rennes chaired by the Salan General. June 9
General Salan delivers his farewell address to the Army at an honors ceremony in the Invalides, Paris.
June 10 Colonel Si Salha, chief of Wilaya 4, Si Mohamed military commander of Wilaya 4 and Si Lakdar, political adjudant of Si Salah, meet secretly with President De Gaulle at the Élysée Palace in order to negotiate a “Peace of the Brave” for the rebels of Wilays 3, 4, 5 and 6. All of the FLN participants in the meeting are eventually assassinated. June 14
President de Gaulle renews his peace offer to the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic while also alluding to his contacts with Si Salah.
June 16 The French Algeria Front (FAF) is formed in Algiers under the presidency of Bachaga Boualam. The Front’s membership grows to over 420,000 within days. June 19
Delegate General Paul Delouvrier prohibits newspapers from leaving blank spaces in place of censored articles, a practice they have followed or a regular basis since November 1954.
June 20 Ferhat Abbas launches an appeal to the Algerian people.
June 25 Preliminary negotiations with the FLN are held at Melun.
June 30 The MNA reaffirms its position that there should be no discrimination between the Algerians, whether they are Europeans or Jews, they should be equal citizens of the Algerian fatherland. The MNA calls upon these minorities to contribute to the re-establishment of peace and the construction of the Algerian State.
July 28 The execution of Lieutenant Raymond Bouchemal, head of the SAS in Tassala, North Constantine, who was taken prisoner by the FLN on June 5, 1958 is announced during a broadcast of the Voice of Arab Algeria transmitted by Radio Tunis.
July 31 Thirteen French bathers are murdered and 6 others are wounded during an FLN attack on the Carobier beach between Algiers and Cherchel.
August 4 The Bishop of Algiers, Monsignor Duval, refuses to allow a memorial mass to be said in the Cathedral of Algiers for two Pied Noir conscripts captured and shot by the FLN.
August 9 Two conscripts in the 8th Spahis, taken prisoner during an ambush by the FLN, are shot by the ALN near Gardimahou, Tunisia.
August 10 Delegate General Paul Delouvrier informs Salan that his presence is undesirable and that he will be expelled if he does not voluntarily leave Algerian territory.
August 10 General Salan leaves for Algiers to begin his retirement.
August 13 Privates Clotaire Le Galle and Michel Castera, prisoners of the FLN, are shot in Tunisia by order of the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic.
August 18 President de Gaulle commutes the death sentences of 10 FLN prisoners.
August 25 An FLN commando unit machine-guns bathers on the beach at Chenoua, west of Algiers, leaving several of them dead or wounded.
September 1 Pro-French Algeria Europeans are expelled from Algeria.
September 3 La Mouvement Pour la Communauté (MPC), destined to promote Gaullist policy favoring independence, is set up in Algeria.
September 5 Trial of the Jeanson Network opens in Paris. The defendants, 18 metropolitan Frenchmen and 6 French Moslems, are charged with collecting funds to aid the FLN.
September 5 The Manifesto of the 121, A Declaration of the Right of Insubordination in the Algerian War which among other things calls on French conscripts to desert is published under the signature of 121 celebrities including Jean Paul Sarte, Simone de Beauvoir, Françoise Sagan, Simone Signoret and Vercors but no Communists.
September 9 The FLN takes a step closer to accepting President Eisenhower’s policy. September 14
Thirteen signatories of the Manifesto of the 121 are charged with sedition.
September 15 In Algiers, General Salan declares that no authority has the power to abandon a portion of territory under French sovereignty.
September 18 Army Minister Pierre Messmer recalls General Salan to Paris.
September 20 Protagonists in the Si Salah affair are betrayed and arrested by Si Mohamed. They are executed with the exception of Si Salah who loses his command and remains a prisoner. Salah’s supporters are purged from the wilayas. September 21
Three French officers are killed when a mine planted by the FLN explodes at Biskra.
September 22 The Minister of Defense bars General Salan from entering Algeria.
September 23 The combat bonus, abolished under President de Gaulle, is restored is restored to military pensioners in metropolitan France. The pensions paid to French veterans residing the former colonies remains frozen at approximately $15 a year.
September 26 Five Moslem deputies of the Gaullist Union pour la Nouvelle Republique (UNR) resign.
October 2 The Jeanson Network trial ends in conviction for 17 of the accused.
October 3 The Communist Party adopts the principles set forth in Manifesto 121 which declares, “We consider the actions of Frenchmen to provide assistance and protection to the Algerians of the FLN justified.” October 8
One person is killed and 12 others are wounded when an FLN member throws a grenade into a Bône café. The victims were all French or British sailors.
October 24 Ferhat Abbas tells the New York Times that Soviet and Chinese aid to the Provisional Government is growing.
October 25 General Salan tells a Paris press conference, “Algeria will remain what it is, French, and France is ready to make sacrifices to gain French victory.” October 27
Violent clashes between advocates and adversaries of French Algeria erupt in Paris following student demonstrations in favor of peace.
October 28 A plenary meeting of the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic is held in Tunis.
November 1 The membership of the Front Algérie Française, 40% Moslem, passes the million mark.
November 2 General Raoul Salan, fearing immenent house arrest, flees France for Spain.
November 3 The Barricades Trial begins. The 15 defendants include a Colonel, a Commandant and 4 fugitives who will be tried in absentia. General Jacques Massu will testify that the Delegate General Paul Delouvier had collaborated in transforming the internment camps into seminaries of rebellion, “where the Army dared not stick its nose.” November 4
President de Gaulle refers to, “the Algerian Republic which will exist one day,” for the first time during a televised speech. November 5
The Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic demands that 200,000 French citizens leave Algeria and that those who remain will be offered only limited guarantees.
November 10 President de Gaulle speaking in Corsica declares, “The FLN has nearly all the Moslems of Algeria with it.” November 11
Marshal Juin, a native of Algeria and hero of the Italian campaign, refuses to participate in Armistice Day ceremonies in Paris as a protest against the policies of President de Gaulle.
November 11 Violent demonstrations, called by the Front Algérie Française, mar Armistice Day celebrations in Algiers.
November 20 French commandos destroy a broadcasting transmitter in Morocco used by the FLN. The French government later compensates Morocco for the destruction.
November 24 Jean Morin replaces Paul Delouvrier as Delegate General in Algeria.
December 4 Five of the defendants in the Barricades Trial, Lagaillard, Susini, Ronda, Foral and Demarquet, flee to Spain.
December 8 Le Front Algérie Française calls a General Strike to protest President de Gaulle’s forthcoming visit to Algeria. December 9
President de Gaulle is greeted by violent protests from Algeria’s Europeans on his arrival for a 4 day visit to the country. Numerous arrests are made throughout Algeria. Hundreds of young Pied Noirs are trapped in roundups organized by the riot police (CRS) and the Gendarmerie Mobile and placed in internment. December 10
President de Gaulle, speaking to a meeting of officers at Blida airfield near Algiers, declares, “It is an Algerian Algeria, which, every day, becomes, by the force of things, more Algerian than the day before.” December 10
Moslems demonstrations, organized by the SAU (the rural equivalent of the SAS), begin with cries of Vive de Gaulle and Algérie Algérienne. Exhuberance rapidly degenerates into rioting. FLN flags are brandished. Europeans are lynched. Stores and homes are burned and their occupants massacred. The Army opens fire to restore order.
December 13 Three 3 days of rioting end with the arrest and internment of 680 Europeans and 250 Moslems, 123 dead and more than 600 injured.
December 15 The cabinet takes disciplinary measures against General Raoul Salan and fires civil servants who went on strike December 9th.
December 16 Ferhat Abbas launches an appeal to the Algerian people.
December 19 A Yugoslav freighter is seized in the Mediterranean with a cargo of arms destined for the FLN.
December 20 President de Gaulle declares that a Yes on the referendum will be a vote for the birth of an Algerian state with its own government, its own institutions and its own laws.
December 20 The United Nations General Assembly approves a resolution in favor of, “the right of the Algerian people to self-determination and independence” by a vote of 63 to 8 with 27 abstentions. December 22
Premier Michel Debré declares, “The Algeria envisaged by de Gaulle is an Algeria with a French flag and a French Army. For de Gaulle, the Algerian Republic is 30 years distant.” December 24
Le Front Algérie Française is dissolved.
December 27 Gerboise Rouge, the third and final atmospheric test of an atomic bomb in the Algerian Sahara, is conducted at Hammoudia.
December 29 Marshal Alphonse Juin is dismissed from the National Defense Council for taking a position in favor of French Algeria.
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