The Algerian War and the French Army, 1954-62: Experiences, Images, Testimonies

282 Pages·2002·0.83 MB·English

by  Martin S. Alexander

The Algerian War and the
French Army, 1954–62
Experiences, Images, Testimonies
Edited by
Martin S. Alexander, Martin Evans and
J.F.V. Keiger
The Algerian War and the French Army, 1954–62
This page intentionally left blank
The Algerian War and the
French Army, 1954–62
Experiences, Images, Testimonies
Edited by
Martin S. Alexander, Martin Evans, J. F. V. Keiger
Editorial matter and selection © Martin S. Alexander, Martin Evans
and J. F. V. Keiger 2002
All chapters © Palgrave Macmillan Ltd 2002
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication
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work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2002 by
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The Algerian war and the French army : experiences, images, testimonies /
edited by Martin S. Alexander, Martin Evans, J.F.V. Keiger.
p. cm.
Based in part on papers presented at a conference held at Salford University,
1996.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0–333–77456–6
1. Algeria–History–Revolution, 1954–1962–Congresses. 2. France.
Armée–History–20th century–Congresses. I. Alexander, Martin S., 1955.
II. Evans, Martin, 1964– III. Keiger, John F. V.
DT295 .A5576 2002
965’.046–dc21 2002023879
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham and Eastbourne
Contents
Preface vii
Notes on the Contributors ix
1 The ‘War without a Name’, the French Army and the Algerians:
Recovering Experiences, Images and Testimonies
Martin S. Alexander, Martin Evans and J. F. V. Keiger 1
Part I Experiences
2 From Indochina to Algeria: Counter-Insurgency Lessons
Alexander J. Zervoudakis 43
3 Algeria and the ‘Official Mind’: the Impact of North Africa on
French Colonial Policy South of the Sahara, 1944–58
Martin Shipway 61
4 The Sahara and the Algerian War
Jacques Frémeaux 76
5 From One Crisis to Another: the Morale of the French Foreign
Legion during the Algerian War
Eckard Michels 88
6 The War Culture of French Combatants in the Algerian Conflict
Jean-Charles Jauffret 101
7 The Harkis: the Experience and Memory of France’s Muslim
Auxiliaries
Martin Evans 117
Part II Images
8 Anglo-Saxon Literary and Filmic Representations of the French
Army in Algeria
Philip Dine 137
9 The Image of the French Army in the Cinematic Representation of
the Algerian War: the Revolutionary Politics of The Battle of Algiers
Hugh Roberts 152
10 The Algerian War through the Prism of Anglo-Saxon Literature,
1954–66
Michael Brett 164
vi Contents
11 Le Monde’s Coverage of the Army and Civil Liberties during the
Algerian War, 1954–58
Mohammed Khane 174
12 Psychological Propaganda during the Algerian War – Based on
a Study of French Army Pamphlets
Nacéra Aggoun 193
13 Remembering the Algerian War: Memory/ies and Identity/ies
in Téchiné’sLes Roseaux Sauvages
Brigitte Rollet 200
14 The Children of the Occupation and Colonial Ideology
Bernard W. Sigg 211
Part III Witness Testimonies
15 Officer Corps Veterans 225
16 Anti-War Activists 243
Appendix:Algerian War Witnesses – Biographical Details 261
Index 265
Preface
The idea for this collection of essays originated with a conference on the
Algerian War organized at Salford University back in 1996. The conference
was organized by the European Studies Research Institute at Salford in
collaboration with the Centre for European Studies Research at Portsmouth
University and received generous financial support from the British
Academy. However, the present volume contains new essays, excludes
others and is a quite different being to its progenitor. What was most orig-
inal in the conference was the witness sessions of army personnel with key
roles in the war alongside opponents of that war. Many of the ex-soldiers
were testifying for the first time about their activities, their motivation and
their memories of the war. They openly admitted that, given the contin-
ued sensitivity about the war even a generation later, they would not have
spoken at an equivalent conference in France. Some of the witnesses whose
testimony is recorded here have since died – Georges Mattéi and Major
Paul Léger – and it is appropriate that we record our thanks as historians to
two individuals who experienced in very different ways the horrors of the
‘war with no name’.
Thanks are also due to other individuals who helped in the transforma-
tion of this work from conference to collection of essays. Heather Lally and
Louise Graham organized the logistics of the conference with military effi-
ciency; Drs Ahmed Aghrout and Redha Bougherira have provided
unrelenting assistance of a technical and academic nature from conference
to collection. Paul Leahy skilfully translated difficult French texts scattered
with arcane military terminology. Alexander Zervoudakis not only secured
the participation of the ex-army witnesses, he worked tirelessly to ensure
accurate translations of their testimonies and arranged for the provision of
detailed biographical information so that the officers’ Algerian War service
may be situated correctly within their army careers as a whole. Martin
Evans, in turn, negotiated the participation of MM Mandouze, Mattéi, Sigg
and Sirkidji and helped establish their biographical résumés. Finally,
throughout their work the editors have been indebted to the enthusiasm
and assistance of the former Director of the European Studies Research
Institute at the University of Salford, Professor Geoffrey T. Harris.
vii
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Notes on the Contributors
Nacéra Aggoun wrote her doctoral thesis for the Université de Paris VIII
(Saint-Denis) on ‘La guerre d’Algérie dans la vallée du Chélif (Miliana-
Orléansville), 1945–1958’. She is a member of the Institut Maghreb-Europe
in Paris, where she has taught research methods (notably on using oral
sources) for the DEA Maghreb programme and a seminar on the Algerian
War’s social history.
Martin S. Alexander is Professor of International Relations at the
University of Wales, Aberystwyth. He held the Chair of Contemporary
History and Politics at the University of Salford, 1994–2000. Among his
works are The Republic in Danger. General Maurice Gamelin and the politics of
French defence, 1933–1940 (Cambridge University Press, 1993) and, as
editor, French History since Napoleon (Arnold, 1999).
Michael Brett is Reader in the History of North Africa at the School of
Oriental and African Studies, London. He is editor and translator of
Charles-Robert Ageron’s Modern Algeria: A History from 1830 to the Present
(Christopher Hurst, 1991). He has written many articles on modern North
Africa.
Philip Dine is Senior Lecturer at Loughborough University. He is the
author of Images of the Algerian War: French Fiction and Film, 1954–1992
(Clarendon Press, 1994), and French Rugby Football: a Cultural History(Berg,
2001).
Martin Evans is Reader in Contemporary European History at the
University of Portsmouth and Director of the Centre for European Studies
Research (CESR). He is the author of The Memory of Resistance: French
Opposition to the Algerian War(Berg, 1997), and co-editor (with Ken Lunn)
of War and Memory in the Twentieth Century(Berg, 1997).
Jacques Frémeaux is a graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure and is
Professor of Contemporary History at the Université de Paris IV
(Sorbonne). He had published La France et l’Islam depuis 1789 (Presses
Universitaires de France, 1991), and Le monde arabe et la sécurité de la France
depuis 1958(Presses Universitaires de France, 1995).
Jean-Charles Jauffretis Professor at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques at Aix-
en-Provence, where he directs the DEA programme in Military History,
ix