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.