19 مارس ذكرى عيد النصر

[ندعوك للتسجيل في المنتدى أو التعريف بنفسك لمعاينة هذه الصورة]

[ندعوك للتسجيل في المنتدى أو التعريف بنفسك لمعاينة هذه الصورة]

Map of Algeria at the

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Belkacem Krim (left) and Ait Hamouda Amirouche (right), two important ALN commanders. Krim led Willaya 3, while Amirouche was a chief of the ALN and - although officially an Algerian national hero until today - a very cruel person. In Algeria, Amirouche is known to have probably killed more Algerians than French. He especially despised intellectuals, or anyone having any kind of educational level, which is the reaons why some compare him with Pol Pot. In fact, he became a victim of what the French called "bleuite" - an attempt of causing the ALN-fighters to turn against each other out of mistrust. Amirouch was killed on 28 March 1959 near Bou Saada, while underway to Tunisia where he should have joined the "Army of Border". (via M.A.)

[ندعوك للتسجيل في المنتدى أو التعريف بنفسك لمعاينة هذه الصورة]

[ندعوك للتسجيل في المنتدى أو التعريف بنفسك لمعاينة هذه الصورة]

[ندعوك للتسجيل في المنتدى أو التعريف بنفسك لمعاينة هذه الصورة]

[ندعوك للتسجيل في المنتدى أو التعريف بنفسك لمعاينة هذه الصورة]

[ندعوك للتسجيل في المنتدى أو التعريف بنفسك لمعاينة هذه الصورة]

Taken in Morocco, probably in 1960, this photograph shows Houari Boumediene (his real name was Mohamed Boukherouba), later the first Minister of Defence in Algeria, and later on the President. (via M.A.)

The final Bloodbath
Despite clandestine operations De Gaulle was meanwhile free to pursue his policy of disengagement, which culminated in an Agreement at Evian, in March 1962, giving Algeria complete independence under the GPRA, with no special status for the colons, who now began to leave the country in droves. This led to the official declaration of Algerian independence, in July 1962.

The French military, recovering from defeat in Indo-China, and humiliation despite success at Suez, performed superbly in Algeria. Its strategy and tactics were sound, and the extensive operational use of helicopters especially remarkable.

The ALAT was formed at the beginning of the war, when it included only a handful of aircraft, but it rapidly grew to a service operating over 1.000 aircraft and helicopters.

Although completely defeated in military sense, the situation thus eventually represented total nationalist victory. This was achieved at an awesome cost in life: according to different estimates, between 50.000 and 100.000 Moslem civilians were killed before the end of the war, and even more after the vengeful post-ceasefire bloodbath; between 141.000 and 155.000 FLN and 16.000 other insurgents were either killed outright or declared missing, while many more died of wounds. Some sources indicate that it is possible that up to one million of Algerians were killed during the war. Depending on source, the French Army should have lost between 17.456 and 25.000 dead. The Armée de l'Air is known to have suffered a loss of 97 aircraft shot down or crashed due to non-combat related reasons between 1955 and 1962; no less but 139 aircraft and helicopters were lost or damaged in 1958 alone (including five T-6Gs, one Mistral and two Pipers shot down).

Also killed were 2.788 colons (other sources state as many as between 3.200 and 3.600). Much worse for the later, however, was the humiliating defeat and usually a ruinous exile.

The French flying services slowly decreased their activity in Algeria through 1962, as many units were either disbanded or pulled back to France. For example, the EC.20 ceased flying combat sorties on 19 March 1962, but remained in country until September, deployed on three airfields: Boufarik, Bone and Oran. Even if AD-4s remained operational with AdA, subsequently, all of its three Escadrons were disbanded, the last in 1964. Only the EC.1/20 survived: re-named Escadron d’Appui Aérien 1/21 “Aures Nemenchas”, it was re-deployed to Djibouti, from March 1963 until 1968, when it was sent to Fort Lamy (today N’Djamena), in Chad. Other AD-4s were reorganized into EC.1/22 “Ain”, which was also deployed to Chad, in September 1969, and remained there until October 1975.

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