Algerian War

On 20 August 1955, the FLN launched a coordinated attack against Philippeville and numerous surrounding villages, aiming to trigger a general insurrection in eastern Algeria. The attacks were accompanied by massacres of European civilians, provoking an extremely violent response from the French army. The repression was massive: several thousand Algerians were killed in reprisals in the days that followed.

The Battle of Algiers was a massive urban counterinsurgency operation launched by the French army to dismantle the FLN networks responsible for a wave of bombings against European civilians. The army obtained exceptional police powers: sweeps of Muslim districts, mass arrests, widespread use of torture, and summary executions. After several months of tracking, almost the entire urban FLN network was dismantled, but at the cost of lasting moral discredit for the French army.

The Battle of the Frontiers pitted the French army against several thousand ALN fighters attempting to cross the Morice Line, a network of barbed wire and minefields separating Tunisia from Algeria. The clashes were of rare intensity: night attacks, wave assaults, artillery harassment, and air strikes. The French managed to contain most of the infiltration attempts, inflicting heavy losses on the ALN, but without preventing the continuation of the guerrilla war.

The Battle of Souk Ahras, one of the most violent confrontations of the Algerian War, pitted several thousand ALN fighters attempting to cross the Tunisian border to join the interior maquis against the French army. Using a massive encirclement, armored support, and aviation, the French army managed to inflict heavy losses on the enemy and break the offensive. This tactical success, however, was not enough to end the guerrilla war.

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.

Operation Étincelle, conducted in the difficult Aurès massif, aimed to destroy the last major FLN maquis in this region symbolic of Algerian resistance. The French army mobilized substantial reconnaissance, artillery, and air transport resources to encircle and harass the insurgent groups. The fighting was harsh in the valleys and on the heights, with numerous clashes and the destruction of weapons caches.

A large-scale operation to eradicate the FLN maquis in Kabylia, mobilizing armor, aviation, and heliborne troops. Several camps and caches were destroyed, heavy losses inflicted on the enemy, but the Kabyle guerrilla retained part of its capacity for action.

Operation Timgad aimed to eradicate the last FLN maquis in the Aurès massif, at a time when the French army also had to manage the risk of a putsch in Algiers. The fighting, particularly violent in the valleys and mountains, saw the massive engagement of motorized troops, aviation, and commandos. The operation managed to reduce numerous FLN groups, but the guerrilla was not entirely annihilated.

One of the last major engagements of the Algerian War. French forces attempted to block a massive FLN incursion into the El-Milia region, in the northeast. The fighting was intense: clashes in the mountains, ambushes on the roads, and heliborne counteroffensives. Military pressure was not enough to prevent the continuation of infiltrations.