Episode Notes

The April 1961 Generals’ Putsch of Algiers (Putsch des généraux), was a failed military action to press French President Charles de Gaulle to not abandon French Algeria, along with French people and pro-French Arabs living there. The putsch in French Algeria was conducted by four retired generals, led by Maurice Challe, the commander of the French Armed Forces in Algeria in 1958-60 and the author of the successful Challe Plan. The plan which in effect helped to defeat militant rebels across Algeria.

References:

Martin Windrow Our Friends Beneath the Sands: The Foreign Legion in France’s Colonial Conquests 1870-1935

Douglas Porch The French Foreign Legion: A Complete History of the Legendary Fighting Force

Douglas Porch Counterinsurgency: Exposing the Myths of the New Way of War

Alistair Horne A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962

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