OAS and Delta: against de Gaulle and TNF
Frame from the movie “Target: 500 Million”
We continue our story about the tragic events that followed de Gaulle's decision to leave Algeria.
Organization de l'Armee Secrete
On December 3, 1960, in the capital of Spain, General Raul Salan, Colonel Charles Lacheroy and the leaders of the “black-footed” students Pierre Lagayard and Jean-Jacques Susini concluded the Madrid (anti-Gaullist) treaty, which proclaimed the course for the armed struggle for the preservation of Algeria as part of France. This was the origin of the famous Organization de l'Armee Secrete (Secret Armed Organization, OAS, the name was first sounded on February 21, 1961), and later the famous Delta squad, which began the hunt for de Gaulle and other “traitors” and continued the war against Algerian extremists. The OAS motto was the words L'Algérie est française et le restera: "Algeria belongs to France - this will continue to be the case."
In OAS there were many veterans of the Resistance of the times of World War II, who now actively used their experience in conspiratorial work, intelligence and sabotage activities. The posters of this organization claimed: “OAS will not leave” and called: “Neither a suitcase nor a coffin! Rifle and Homeland! "
Organizationally, OAS consisted of three departments.
The tasks of ODM (Organization Des Masses) were the recruitment and training of new members, fundraising, arrangement of conspiracy centers, and the preparation of documents. The head of this department was Colonel Jean Gard.
ORO (Organization Renseignement Operation) was led by Colonel Yves Godard (he ordered to block in April 1961 tanks Admiralty building, not allowing Admiral Cerville to lead the troops loyal to de Gaulle and forcing him to sail to Oran) and writer Jean-Claude Perot. It included the subdivisions of BCR (Intelligence Central Bureau) and BAO (Operational Action Bureau). This department was responsible for sabotage work, the Delta group was subordinate to it.
Jean-Jacques Suzini, which we spoke about recently (in the article "The Time of Skydivers" and "Je ne regrette rien"), headed APP (Action Psychologique Propagande) - a department engaged in agitation and propaganda: two monthly magazines were published, brochures, posters, leaflets were printed and even radio programs were broadcast.
In addition to Algeria and France, OAS branches were in Belgium (there were warehouses weapons and explosives), in Italy (training centers and printing houses, where fake documents were also produced), Spain and Germany (conspiratorial centers were located in these countries).
Many active servicemen and law enforcement officers sympathized with the OAS, while the head of the French General Staff, General Charles Allerett, said in one of his reports that only 10% of the soldiers were ready to shoot at the "fighters". Indeed, the local police did not intervene in the Delta operation, which destroyed 25 barbuzes in one of the Algerian hotels (Les Barbouzes - a secret organization of non-French-born Gaullists created by the French authorities whose purpose was extrajudicial reprisals against identified members of the OAS).
OAS had no problems with weapons, but with money it was much worse, and therefore several banks were robbed, including Rothschild in Paris.
Among the very famous people who became members of the OAS are the former Secretary General of the Gaullist Reunion of the French People party Jacques Sustel, who previously served as Governor General of Algeria and Minister of State for Overseas Territories.
OAS was also a member of parliament, Jean-Marie Le Pen (founder of the National Front Party), who served in the Legion since 1954 and knew well many of the leaders of this organization.
Jean-Marie Le Pen, late 1950s
Le Pen began his service in the legion in Indochina, then, in 1956, during the Suez crisis, he was subordinate to Pierre Chateau-Jobert, which was already mentioned in previous articles, and will be discussed later. In 1957, Le Pen took part in hostilities in Algeria.
The number of the OAS military branch reached 4 thousand people, the direct perpetrators of the attacks - 500 (the Delta detachment under the command of Lieutenant Roger Degeldr), there were an order of magnitude more sympathizers. Historians are surprised to note that the movement of this "new Resistance" turned out to be much more massive than during the years of World War II.
Pierre Chateau-Jaubert
One of the heroes of the French Resistance during World War II was Pierre Chateau-Jobert, who, under the name of Conan, joined him on June 1, 1940. In 1944, he led the Third CAC Parachute Regiment (SAS, Special Air Service, Special Airborne Assault) created in Algeria, the French unit that was part of the British Army. In the summer and autumn of 1944, in France, this regiment, abandoned in the rear of the German army, destroyed 5476 enemy soldiers and officers, captured 1390. In addition, 11 trains were derailed and 382 cars were burned. During this time, the regiment lost only 41 people. Colonel Chateau-Jobert personally commanded the French paratroopers of the Second Parachute Regiment of the Legion, who landed during the Suez Crisis in Port Fuad on November 5, 1956.
Pierre Chateau-Jobert was an active member of the OAS, during an attempted military coup General Salan appointed him commander of the troops in Constantine (where there were three regiments). Leaving Algeria on June 30, Château-Jaubert continued the struggle, and in 1965 the de Gaulle government sentenced him to death in absentia, but was granted amnesty in June 1968. In France he was called the "last irreconcilable." On May 16, 2001, his name was assigned to the Second Parachute Regiment.
Monument to Chateau-Jaubert, installed in October 2010 in the territory of the Paratrooper School in Pau
Pierre Serjan
The last head of the French branch of OAS was captain Pierre Serjan, who in 1943-1944. in Paris, he was a member of the Freedom armed group, and then a partisan in the province. Since 1950, he served in the legion: first in the First Infantry Regiment, then in the first parachute, in which he took part in Operation Marion - a landing (2350) in the rear of the Vietnamese troops.
Pierre Serjan
He continued his service in Algeria. After an unsuccessful attempt at a military coup, he became a member of the OAS, was twice sentenced to death (in 1962 and 1964), but was able to avoid arrest. After an amnesty in July 1968, he joined the National Front (1972) and became a member of parliament from this party (1986-1988). In addition to political activity, he was engaged in history Foreign Legion, became the author of the book “The Legion Landed in Colwezi: Operation Leopard”, in which a film of the same name was shot in France in 1980.
Shot from the film "The Legion Landed at Kolgesi"
This film is about a military operation to liberate a Zaire city captured by rebels of the Congo National Liberation Front, who were held hostage by about three thousand Europeans (this will be described in detail in one of the following articles).
In addition to the Chateau-Jobert and Pierre Serjan, the Delta squad included many other veterans of the Foreign Legion.
Delta Group ("Delta")
Against de Gaulle and the state machine completely subordinate to him, against a million soldiers, gendarmes and police, only 500 people of the Delta group spoke out. Is funny Not very, because, without any exaggeration, they were the best soldiers of France, the last real and great warriors of this country. United by a common goal, passionate young veterans of numerous wars were very serious opponents and were ready to die if they could not win.
The head of the Delta combat group, Roger Degeldre, fled from the northern part of France occupied by the Germans in the south of France in 1940 at the age of 15 years. Already in 1942, the 17-year-old anti-fascist returned to join the ranks of one of the resistance units, and with the arrival of the allies in January 1945, he fought as part of the 10th mechanized rifle division. Since French citizens were forbidden to enter the Foreign Legion as an ordinary, he served in the first armored cavalry and first parachute regiments of the legion under the name Roger Legeldra, becoming, according to "legend", a Swiss from the city of Gruyere (French-speaking canton of Friborg), fought in Indochina, rose to the rank of lieutenant became a knight of the Legion of Honor. On December 11, 1960, he moved to an illegal position, in 1961 he became the leader of the Delta detachment.
Lieutenant Roger Degeldr, head of the Delta squad
On April 7, 1962, he was arrested and executed on July 6 of the same year.
Another well-known Legionnaire of the Delta is the Croatian Alber Dovécar, who served in the first parachute regiment under the name Paul Dodewart since 1957 (he chose Vienna as the “birthplace” when he entered the Legion, probably because he knew German well, but “a native of Germany” "Did not want to become). Dovécar led the group that killed Algeria's chief police commissioner Roger Gavouri. To avoid accidental casualties among the population, he and Claude Piegts (direct executors) were armed only with knives. Both were executed on June 7, 1962.
Albert Dovécar
Claude Piegts
At different times, the Delta squad included up to 33 groups. The commander of Delta 1 was the aforementioned Albert Dovécar, Delta 2 was led by Wilfried Zilberman, Delta 3 was Jean-Pierre Ramos, Delta 4 was the former lieutenant Jean-Paul Blanche, Delta 9 was Joe Rizza, Delta 11 was Paul Mansilla, Delta 24 was Marcel Lizhier. .
Judging by the names, the commanders of these groups, in addition to the Croatian legionnaire, were the “black-footed” Algeria. Two of them are clearly French, who with equal probability could be natives of France or Algeria. Two are Spaniards, probably from Oran, where many people from this country lived. One Italian (or Corsican) and one Jew.
After the arrest of Roger Degeldre, the fight against de Gaulle was led by Colonel Antoine Argo, formerly the head of the Spanish branch of OAS, a World War II veteran who served as a lieutenant in the Free France forces, who had served as military adviser on Algerian affairs since 1954, and since late 1958 - was the chief of staff of General Massiu.
He began preparations for a new attempt on de Gaulle, which was to be held on February 15, 1963 at the military academy, where the president’s speech was planned. The conspirators were issued by a frightened guard who agreed to let the three OAS members inside. Ten days later, agents of the Fifth Division of French Intelligence abducted Antoine Argo in Munich. He was illegally transported to France and associated, with traces of torture left in a minivan near the police headquarters in Paris. Such methods of the French shocked even their American and Western European allies.
In 1966, one of the Delta’s former commanders, the captain of the first parachute regiment of the Foreign Legion, Jean Reischo (a fictional character), became the protagonist of the film “Target: 500 Million”, which was shot by the famous film director Pierre Schönderffer. According to the plot, he agreed to become an accomplice in the robbery of a mail plane to help his colleagues start a new life in Brazil.
Images from the film “Target: 500 Million”:
The song "Tell your captain", sounded in this film, was at one time very popular in France:
You have a plain jacket
Your pants are badly cut
And your terrible shoes
It hinders me from dancing.
It makes me sad
Because I love you.
Your pants are badly cut
And your terrible shoes
It hinders me from dancing.
It makes me sad
Because I love you.
The first well-known politician who fell victim to OAS was the liberal Pierre Popier, who declared in a television interview on January 24, 1961:
“French Algeria is dead! I tell you this, Pierre Popier. ”
On January 25, he was killed, a note was found next to his body:
“Pierre Popier is dead! I tell you this, French Algeria! ”
Attempts were attempted on 38 deputies of the National Assembly and 9 senators who advocated independence for Algeria. At de Gaulle, the OAS organized from 13 to 15 (according to various sources) assassination attempts - all unsuccessful. The attempt on the prime minister, Georges Pompidou, was also unsuccessful.
Over the years, OAS organized 12 assassination attempts (290 Europeans and 239 Arabs were killed, 1383 Europeans and 1062 Arabs were injured).
Authorities responded with terror to terror; de Gaulle ordered torture of arrested OAS members. The OAS was engaged in the fight against OAS (the Fifth Division - it was his employees who abducted Colonel Argo in Germany) of the French DGSE (Directorate General for External Security). The training of his employees took place in a camp, which, in the area, was often called the "Satori nursery." Bad rumors circulated about his "graduates" in France: they were suspected of illegal methods of conducting investigations and even extrajudicial killings of opponents of Charles de Gaulle.
Perhaps you remember the films “The Tall Blonde in the Black Boot” and “The Return of the Tall Blonde” starring Pierre Richard. Oddly enough, in France in these comedies, shot in 1972 and 1974, many then saw not only the amusing adventures of an unlucky musician, but also a clear and very transparent hint of dirty work methods and the arbitrariness of special services under Charles de Gaulle.
As you know, de Gaulle resigned as president on April 28, 1969 after the failure of the referendum he initiated on the creation of economic regions and Senate reform. By this time, his relationship with Georges Pompidou, the former prime minister, had been finally dismissed because he had become more popular than the president amid the events of the spring of 1968. Taking the post of head of state, Pompidou did not particularly stand on ceremony, raking de Gaulle's "Augean stables". Cleaning was also carried out in the special services, which under de Gaulle began to turn into a “state in the state” and had fun as they wanted, without denying anything to themselves: they listened to everyone in a row, collected tribute from criminal syndicates, and “roofed” the drug trade. The main investigations, of course, were carried out behind closed doors, but something also got on the pages of newspapers, and the first film begins with exposing the fraud on heroin smuggling (“confused counterintelligence with smuggling” is an everyday matter). The main anti-hero is Colonel Louis Toulouse, who quietly sacrifices his subordinates to save his place, arranges for the murder of his deputy and tries to get rid of the hero Richard (Monsieur Perrin - from this film all the heroes of Richard began to bear this name traditionally), who accidentally found himself in the center of this intrigue.
Frame from the movie "Tall Blonde in a Black Boot":
And in the second film, captain Cambrai, to expose Toulouse, no less calmly puts Perren under attack - and receives a slap in the finale as a "thank you" from the "little man", whose life the special services "manage at their own discretion."
Shot from the movie “The Return of the Tall Blonde”:
But we were a little distracted, let's go back - at a time when, trying to save French Algeria, both OAS and the “Old Army Headquarters” fought on two fronts (this article was described a little in the article "The Time of Skydivers" and "Je ne regrette rien").
Not only the police, the national gendarmerie and special services of France, but also the terrorist units of the TNF, who killed the alleged members of this organization, and also attacked the homes and businesses of those who sympathized with the ideas of “French Algeria”, waged a war against OAS at both sides. The degree of madness every year only increased.
Map of terrorist attacks in Algeria: Muslim neighborhoods - green, European - orange
In June 1961, OAS agents blew up a railway while passing a fast train from Strasbourg to Paris - 28 people were killed and more than a hundred were injured.
Algerian militants in September of that year killed 11 policemen in Paris and injured 17. Prefect of the Paris police Maurice Papon, trying to take control of the situation, announced a curfew on October 5 of that year for “Algerian workers, French Muslims and French Muslims from Algeria”.
The leaders of the TNF in response called on all Parisians from Algeria, "starting from Saturday, October 14, 1961 ... to leave the masses, with their wives and children ... to walk along the main streets of Paris." And on October 17, they even ordered a demonstration, without even making the slightest effort to get permission from the authorities.
The “ministers” of the Algerian Provisional Government, who were sitting in cozy Cairo’s offices, were well aware that such “walks” could be deadly, especially for women and children, who, during clashes with the police and possible panic, could simply be trampled or thrown from bridges into the river. Moreover, they hoped that this is exactly what would happen. The killed militants and terrorists did not cause any particular pity, and even the democratic and communist "sponsors" frowned, giving money. And the sponsors of Algerian militants and terrorists were not only Beijing and Moscow, but also the United States and the Western European allies of France. American newspapers wrote:
"The war in Algeria sets the whole of North Africa against the West ... The continuation of the war will leave the West in North Africa without friends and the United States without bases."
The mass death of absolutely innocent people and obviously not dangerous for the French authorities was needed, and not in faraway Algeria, but in Paris - in front of the "world public". These “sacred” victims were to be the wives and children of Algerian migrants.
This was not the first attempt by the TNF to destabilize the situation in Paris. In 1958, numerous attacks on police officers of the French capital were organized, four were killed and many were injured. The authorities reacted adequately and harshly, defeating 60 underground groups, which provoked a hysterical reaction of liberals led by Sartre, who were tearing out, calling the police the Gestapo and demanding to improve and make “worthy” the content of the arrested militants. However, the times were still not "tolerant", making sure that few people paid attention to their cries, liberal intellectuals took up the affairs of more familiar, pressing and interesting things - prostitutes of both sexes, drugs and alcohol. Sartre’s biographer Annie Cohen-Solal claimed that every day he took “two packs of cigarettes, a few tobacco pipes, more than a quart (946 ml!) Of alcohol, two hundred milligrams of amphetamines, fifteen grams of aspirin, a bunch of barbiturates, some coffee, tea and a few 'heavy meals "".
This lady did not want to go to jail for drug propaganda, and therefore did not indicate the recipe for these “dishes”.
In 1971, in an interview with political science professor John Gerassi, Sartre complained that he was constantly pursued by giant crabs:
“I'm used to them. I woke up in the morning and said: "Good morning, my little ones, how did you sleep?" I could chat with them all the time or say, “Okay guys, now we are going to the audience, so you should be quiet and calm.” They surrounded my table and did not move at all until the bell rang. ”
Zhan Pol Sartr, Gallyutsinatsii. Illustration from Robert Schnakenberg's book “The Secret Life of Great Writers”
But back in October 17, 1961. The French security forces were between Scylla and Charybdis: they had to literally go along the razor's edge, not allowing the defeat of the capital of the country, but at the same time avoiding massive casualties among aggressively-minded demonstrators. And I must admit that they succeeded then. Maurice Papon turned out to be a very courageous man who was not afraid to take responsibility. To his subordinates, he turned:
“Do your duty and do not pay attention to what the newspapers write. I am responsible for all your actions, and only I. ”
It was his principled position that actually saved Paris then.
Maurice Papon
In 1998, France thanked him, condemning the 88-year-old man for 10 years for serving in the Vichy administration of Bordeaux during World War II, from which 1690 Jews were deported by order of Pétain, and the documents naturally showed Papon's signatures (as the chief secretary of the prefecture. And how could they not be there?).
“Beautiful France, when will you die?”
The slogans carried by the TNF-appointed provocateurs that day were as follows:
"France is Algeria."
“Beat the Franks.”
"The Eiffel Tower will become a minaret."
"Paris whores, where is your hijab?"
“Beautiful France, when will you die?”
Already…
By the way, back in 1956, a song was written in Algeria in which there are such words:
France! The ranting time is over
We turned this page like the last page
read book
France! So the day of reckoning has come!
Get ready! Here is our answer!
Our revolution will pass judgment.
We turned this page like the last page
read book
France! So the day of reckoning has come!
Get ready! Here is our answer!
Our revolution will pass judgment.
It would seem nothing special? Of course, if you do not know that in 1963 this song became the anthem of Algeria, whose citizens to this day, when performed at official ceremonies, threaten France.
But back in October 17, 1961.
From 30 to 40 thousand Algerians, breaking shop windows on their way and burning cars (well, robbing shops along the way, of course) tried to break into the center of Paris. They were opposed by 7 thousand police officers and about one and a half thousand soldiers of the republican security detachments. The danger was really great: about 2 thousand units of firearms thrown by "peaceful demonstrators" were later found on the streets of Paris, but Papon’s employees acted so decisively and professionally that the militants simply did not manage to put them into action. According to the latest official figures, 48 people were killed in mass fights. Ten thousand Arabs were arrested, many of them deported, and this served as a serious lesson for the rest, who some time after that walked literally “on the wall”, politely smiling to all the French they met.
Algerian demonstrators in a police bus. October 17, 1961
In 2001, the Paris authorities apologized to the Arabs, and mayor Bertrand Delaunay opened a plaque on the Saint-Michel bridge. But the "siloviki" are still convinced that the protesters were going to burn Notre Dame and the Palace of Justice out of thin air.
In March 1962, when they realized that they had unexpectedly won, the TNF militants "perked up": in order to put pressure on the French government, the TNF terrorists launched a hundred explosions a day. When the desperate "black-footed" and evolves of Algeria on March 26, 1962 came to an authorized peaceful demonstration (in support of the OAS and against Islamic terror), they were shot by units of Algerian tyrants - 85 were killed and 200 wounded.
In the next article, we will complete the story of the Algerian war, talk about the tragic escape from this country of the “black-footed”, evolves and harki, and about some of the sad events that followed the country's independence.
In preparing the article, information was used about Pierre Chateau-Jaubert from the blog of Catherine Urzova and two photos from the same blog:
The Story of Pierre Chateau-Jaubert.
Monument Chateau-Jaubert.
Information