Secret armed Organization

The secret armed Organization ( OAS ) was a French organization politico-soldier clandestine, whose concrete action mainly concerned the Terrorisme. Created the February 11th 1961 after a meeting with Madrid between Jean-Jacques Susini and Pierre Lagaillarde, it gathered the partisans of the maintenance of the “French Algérie” by the means of the armed struggle. Initials OAS appeared on the walls of Algiers on March 16th, 1961, accompanied by the slogan “ Algeria is French and will remain to it ”. Name OAS voluntarily refers to the secret Armée with the Résistance.

Creation

The May 29th 1958, the president Rene Coty calls the general reprocesses Charles de Gaulle of it, following the insurrectionary movements carried out by partisans gaullists of the maintenance of French Algeria (the country is then made up in 4 French departments). The June 4th 1958, de Gaulle pronounces with Algiers its famous speech “I included/understood you”. Two days later - on June 6th - de Gaulle shouts “ Vive French Algeria! ” with Mostaganem, in front of a crowd which includes/understands Europeans and Musulman S.

The September 16th 1959, the shock is thus brutal for all the French of Algeria and Moslem loyal supporters who awake by hearing the Général de Gaulle of Autodétermination. Starting from these circumstances, Joseph Ortiz creates the FNF (French Front National), movement activist. Many other bunches are born or reappear to rise against what they regard as “treason gaullienne”.

The January 24th 1960, beginning of the barricades with the participation of many pied-noir, and as from this time the Algerian rebellion becomes a Franco-French conflict. The Secret Armed Organization is born one year later from the fusion of these various insurrectionary movements in Madrid around Pierre Lagaillarde, which took part in the barricades. Two personalities, firmly opposed to the loss of the Algeria, will inspire the founders of the OAS indirectly: Raoul Girardet and the anthropologist Jacques Soustelle.

This creation was used to form in Algérie a civil combat apparatus, whereas Antoine Argoud acts since the foreigner, considering that the revolution must be directed outside.

The first victim of the OAS, the January 25th 1961, is the liberal lawyer Pierre Popie, president of the federation MRP of Algiers. Before being cut down, this one had declared on television: “ French Algeria died ”. The execution is made by men of André Canal, which, on this date, had not joined the Organization officially yet.

Directed by the general Raoul Salan the shortly after the Putsch of the Generals in Algiers (April 1961), the OAS appears in France and Algeria by multiple attacks and assassinations. At the end of the month of September 1961, the authorities counted more than 1.000 terrorist attacks having made 15 died and 144 wounded, aiming at targets of the political world and trade-union favorable to independence, liberals, and of course the official ones supporting de Gaulle. These Attentat S multiplied about February 1962. The commandos Delta (directed by the lieutenant Roger Degueldre) are engaged in vague loopholes of assassinations, and on March 15th, 1962 the Opération Rock'n'roll (120 explosions in a few hours) is started. Several assassinations are made against six civils servant of an educational social center, of which Mouloud Feraoun, the writer kabyle.

Following the agreements of Evian

Starting from the March 19th 1962, date of the cease-fire in Algeria, FLN became a legal party, while weakened in this new context which saw more and more the Gendarmerie, CRS and the army to coordinate their actions against it with FLN, the OAS claimed to be opposed by violence to the application of the Accords of Evian and to dissuade the French from Algeria to leave the country.

Having a presentiment of the exit as of on February 23rd, Salan writes a capital instruction, instruction 29: “ the irreversible one is about to be made ”. It develops a plan of insurrection to with it. The participation of the European population seems to him acquired in the cities. It is a question of using them like “ valid tool ”, which must be employed like an army to open fire on CRS and the gendarmes.

The March 13rd, the OAS failed in its attempt to organize the insurrection of the district of Bab El-Oued, attempt which ended in a severe repression which made more than 20 dead. The March 26th, the Fusillade of the street of Isly was a new failure for the organization which had wanted to organize a demonstration. The watchword of hunting for the Moslem is essential then for the Delta commandos.

The chiefs of the OAS are conscious that the end is close for French Algeria. The organization tries to prohibit Europeans from fleeing Algeria, but they are still 100.000 people who leave in May. This population massively leaving Algeria, the OAS is private of its principal support. For Susini, it is a question from now on of leaving Algeria to the Algerians such as it was it in its eyes in 1830. It adopts the policy of the burned Ground, which supposes the economic and cultural destruction country. May 18th, of the contacts are taken between Susini and the provisional Executive, but the negotiations trail. Susini breaks the truce on June 7th, the library of the university of Algiers, the town hall are under the flames.

The activities of the Delta commandos ceased the June 17th 1962, following an agreement signed between Jean-Jacques Susini, last chief of the OAS and the doctor Chawki Mostefaï, representing GPRA, right before the proclamation of Algerian independence (July 1962). This agreement made it possible certain members of the OAS to leave Algeria.

Charles de Gaulle is the target of a attack organized by Bastien-Thiry the August 22nd. The presidential procession is taken with part by three men armed with machine pistols, whereas it crosses the Petit-Clamart. The de Gaulle general who escapes from it, will benefit from the emotion caused by the attack to propose the election of the president of the Republic by the vote for all.

Crimes of the OAS

Repression

As of spring 1961, the Grassien police chief, sub-manager of the Judicial police (PJ), arrive to Algeria at the head of fifteen officers. But the results are limited, and the group regains the Metropolis on November 9th. A few weeks later, the director of the PJ, Michel Hacq, relays them, with step less than two hundred inspectors, who form the Mission C. These police officers are reinforced by a group of fifteen gendarmes, directed by the Lacoste captain, and who had already fought the Front of national release (FLN). They are these gendarmes who stop Raoul Salan, on April 20th, 1962, following the information provided by the Parisian PJ.

On his side, the general Charles Feuvrier, chief of the Military security (SM), create a structure specifically in charge of the anti-OAS fight in Algeria, the Division of the missions and research.

These official forces are helped by parallel policemen, famous the Barbouze S, thus called because of the postiches which they were supposed to carry (the term then applied to all the secret agents, regular or not). Without official mandate, the secret agents are recruited in various mediums: champions of martial arts, Vietnameses having chosen France during the War of Indo-China, marginal, and the gangsters, like Jean Trough and the procurer Georges Boucheseiche, old of the French Gestapo. This recruitment, as well as the routing towards Algeria, are ensured by two burning partisans of the general de Gaulle, Lucien Bitterlin, chief of the Mouvement for the community, and by Pierre Lemarchand. The secret agents are charged to make counter-terrorism, i.e. plastic bomb attacks (in particular by Military security, which could not itself make attacks), to realize interrogations (during which the torture is used, according to the members of the OAS which underwent them), and to transmit the information collected by the FLN on the OAS, because the official services could not, before the cease-fire, to maintain relationships to a prohibited movement. Contrary to a tough legend, the Service of civic action, so to speak, did not take part in the repression of the OAS. Only four of its members belonged to the secret agents. On the other hand, many these policemen parallel joined the SAC after 1962, in particular Augé (which becomes chief of the SAC for Lyon and its area), or Boucheseiche.

In metropolis, the fight against the terrorist organization becomes effective only in December 1961, with the formation of the Liaison office (BDL). The BDL gathers all the agents of the police force charged to inquire into the OAS and to stop its members: PJ, Direction of the monitoring of the territory, General informations, National police, Military security of metropolis. The chiefs of the BDL meet every evening and work in direct contact with the , Minister of Interior Department Roger Frey, the adviser of this one charged the anti-OAS fight, Alexandre Sanguinetti, and special adviser of Michel Debré charged to coordinate the action of the secret services, Constantin Melnik.

Assessments

The French historian Remi Kauffer estimates that the OAS killed between 1.700 and 2.000 people. The American journalist Paul Hénissart quotes to him a semi-official source according to which the number of victims killed in Algeria amounts to 2.200. The French historian Guy Pervillé, being based on two reports/ratios of the police force (one of the National security, the other of the Fourquet general, higher commander of the French troops), and considering the “escalation of violence” between spring and the summer 1962, estimates that this figure is perhaps lower than reality. His/her American colleague Rudolph J. Rummel considers him that the number of victims amounts to at least 12.500 (12 000 civilians and 500 members of the police force), estimate comparable with that of Charles de Gaulle in his Mémoires of hope . The historian Olivier Dard considers these assessments very exaggerated.

In 1962, 635 members of the OAS are stopped. 223 are then considered to be, including 117 discharged, fifty-three condemned to a suspended sentence, thirty-eight to an imprisonment, three are condemned to died and are carried out (Roger Degueldre, Claude Piegts and Albert Dovecar), like Bastien-Thiry, non-member of the OAS. The later arrests make it possible to increase the number of condemned to 3.680 (calculation of Rémy Kauffer, which estimates in addition that the police officers, gendarmes, soldiers and secret agents killed several hundreds of members of the OAS during the war). Several members of the OAS took refuge abroad, in particular in Spain, with the Portugal and in South America.

As of December 1964, the prisoners condemned to sorrows lower than fifteen years of detention are amnestied. In March 1966, a hundred condemned are pardoned and, three months later, a second law of amnesty erases the judgments of condemned released. The general Jouhaud, condemned to perpetuity, is released in December 1967. In 1968, the old ones of the OAS meet Jacques Foccart to propose to him their rallying with the mode gaullist against the “ chienlit ” and to require the amnesty of the members of the organization still imprisoned, which they obtain. In July 1974, a complementary amnesty erases other penal judgments. In December 1982, the surviving officers are reinstated within the frameworks of the army by a new amnesty. In 1987, a law on the repatriates amnesties the last still effective judgments.

Flow chart

  • the OAS is segmented in three sections, and each one of these sections has commandos of action:

    • the Organization-of-masses or Organization of the gatherings , in charge of recruitment.
      • Directed by Colonel Jean Guards and Leroy.
    • the Action-psychological-propaganda charged to conquer the favors of the population.
    • the Organization-information-operation charged to prepare the operations with a possible takeover.
      • Directed by Jean-Claude Perez
        • the central Office of information directed by Jean Lalanne
        • Commandos Alpha: With like Achard
        • the Office of operational action directed by Roger Degueldre
        • Commandos Delta D: D like Degueldre: Delta 1, Delta 2 and Delta 3

Leaders

  • General Raoul Salan alias Sun :
  • General Paul Gardy: chief of staff:
  • Colonel Godard: associated chief of staff
  • Doctor Jean-Claude Perez: Organization-Information-operation (ORO): former member of Oraf, movement counter-terrorist, implied in the “business of the bazooka”.
  • Captain Jean-Marie Curutchet: replace the 1-1-1962 doctor Jean-Claude Perez
  • Colonel Jean Gardes: Organization of the gatherings
  • Jean-Jacques Susini: Political movement and propaganda. Become member of the Political office of the National front (FN).
  • Prefect Jacques Achard: Alpha, chief Orleans Marine.

Organization for Algeria:

  • Oranie :
General Edmond Jouhaud assisted by the commander Guillaume.
  • the true Masters of the city were civilians and more particularly Charles Micheletti
  • Colonel Dufour replaces the general Edmond Jouhaud
  • Général Gardy: with a revolutionary directory of 5 members:
    *Capitaine Pierre Sergeant
    * Christian Leger
    * Jean-Marie Curutchet
    * Denis Baille
    * Jean-Rene Souètre

    • Of Algiers :

    Colonel Vaudrey
  • responsible Pierre Delhomme with El-Biar (Height of Algiers)
    • Constantinois:
    Colonel Pierre Château-Jobert
  • Robert Martel alias the “chouan of Mitidja”. Organization except border
    • OAS-metropolis:
    General Paul Vanuxem (alias Verdun);
  • Captain Pierre Sergeant: chief of staff
  • Organization of the gatherings: lieutenant Daniel Godot
  • Political movement and propaganda: Jacques Chadeyron
  • Organization-Information-Operation: the captain Jean-Marie Curutchet
  • OAS Metropolis Young people (OMJ): Lieutenant Nicolas Kayanakis (alias the Greek) and Jean Caunes

    • France-Mission III:

    Andre Canal (known as the Monocle, decree with Paris the May 4th 1962).
    • OAS-Madrid:
    dissenting Groupe asserting the central management of the OAS All the members of the group Madrid will quickly be stopped by the Spanish police force ( Guardia civil ).
    1. Colonel Antoine Argoud, which will become assistant of Georges Bidault.
    2. Colonel Charles Lacheroy
    3. Commander Pierre Lagaillarde

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