Operation Jumelles

Operation Jumelles, the largest of the Algerian conflict, aimed to annihilate the FLN maquis entrenched in the mountainous Kabylia massif. Mobilizing unprecedented resources (aviation, artillery, massive heliborne operations), the French army encircled and harassed the armed groups. Despite tactical successes and the destruction of numerous camps, the FLN retained part of its cadres and its capacity for action.

In 1959, under the impetus of the Challe Plan, France launched a series of offensives to destroy the Algerian guerrilla. Kabylia, a historic hotbed of nationalism and an FLN stronghold, became the theater of a massive operation intended to prove that military victory was possible. The army experimented with joint operations, heliborne commandos, and grid-pattern terrain control.

Blockade of the massifs, aerial reconnaissance and massive strikes, simultaneous heliborne troop insertions, wave-based sweeps, construction of barriers and fortified camps. The highly mobile FLN practiced evasion, concealment in villages, and night harassment. Fighting was violent in the gorges and forests, with numerous night clashes.

Jumelles allowed the capture or elimination of several hundred maquisards and the destruction of numerous weapons caches. Yet the ALN managed to preserve its clandestine networks and maintain the harassment war. Politically, the operation accelerated the French government's realization that a total victory through military force alone was impossible, a prelude to peace negotiations.