Great TL, this just keep getting better and better don't they.
Can I ask what the political siuation in the UK is like ITL?
Similar to OTL in a way, but still immensely complicated; probably deserves an update of it's own through
Nasser explicitly referred to a Fascist coup d'etat. I have a feeling Vichy is behind whatever is going on in Algeria.
Your about to find out if Vichy has anything to do with this or not! Cause it is time.... for the next update!
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PART 34
L’Algérie est française et le restera, الجزائر هي العربية و سيصبح ذلك
"My Arab brothers and sisters, I am proud to announce to all of you on this most glorious day - the Twenty Eighth of May of the year 1960, that the liberation of our oppressed kin in Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco has officially begun - with the first units of the United Arab People's Liberation Army crossing the border between the Arab Republic of Tripolitania and the so called "French Republic" earlier this morning at 5:23 AM, for too long have we allowed European colonial masters and fascist bandits control the destiny of our people, no more I say!, the swiftness and utter brutality espoused by our brave men and women in arms will ensure that not only will the imperialists be quickly defeated in the field of battle, and not only that the organizers of the recent Fascist coup d'etat in Algiers are thrown out, but it will also ensure that our Arab brothers will be reunited with their kin in the United Arab Republic; where they belong"
- Gamal Abdel Nasser
The War in Algeria had initially begun as a war between European and Native, as the former sought to maintain the hold that they had on their colony
- or in the case of France, what they considered to be the last remnants of integral French territory they controlled, while the latter sought to dislodge their European rulers from the country and achieve the independence of the colony, the conflict had however become much more then a simple war of independence in the four years that had passed since it's start, evolving into what was essentially a proxy war between the Americans and Germans; with the Free French and native Algerians merely serving as another set of pawns to be played with in the grand chess game that was the Cold War.
Heading into the fourth year of the Algerian War, it seemed to most as if the momentum was completely in favor of the nationalist Algerian National Council
- who had not only made extensive territorial gains in the field during the offenses of 1958 and 1959, but also seemed to have the Free French literally around the metaphorical hangman's noose as the nationalist forces approached ever closer to the coast, unfortunately for the Algerian Nationalists, there were other
- unknown forces at play, and the events they had set in motion behind the sets were about to completely change the entire course of the not only the conflict; but world history as a whole.
Figure 1a and Figure 1b: Saddam Hussein[1], Iraqi-born Deputy Director of the General Intelligence Directorate and one of the chief architects of "Operation: Soaring Eagle" (left) and General Anwar Sadat, Chief of Staff of the United Arab People's Liberation Army and chief commander of forces on the ground during the UAR's invasion of Algeria in 1960 (right).
The changing tide of the war in favor of the nationalist forces had not come without it's own set of consequences of course, in particular, the failures of the Free French Army in battle had in fact caused a steady increase in dissenting feeling and general discontent amongst the general populace that was directed against the government in Algiers, however, the reasoning behind these feelings of discontent
- unsurprisingly, differed depending on which sector of Algeria's population you were talking about at a certain time, in the case of the majority Arab-Berber native population, these feelings of dissent and discontent against the government were largely motivated by the steadily growing nationalist and Pan-Aran beliefs held by much of the populace, feelings which had ultimately only become widespread and strengthened over the prior four years; thanks to the battlefield success of nationalist and Pan-Arab separatist armies and militias elsewhere in the country.
Attempts by the Free French government to stamp out these beliefs in it's territorial strongholds by granting minor concessions to the native population
- or through the more then mild use of propaganda, would largely fail in achieving their desired goals, this failure was largely a direct result of the increasing (albeit slowly increasing) authoritarian nature of the Algiers government, as well as the continued success of the nationalist and Pan-Arab forces on the battlefield, both of which ultimately served to not only strengthen the resolve of the anti-French causes and their member's desire to achieve their goals
- rather then decrease them, but it also would in the end ultimately make the already weak French position within Algeria even weaker with each passing day; a trend which did not spell a good-long term forecast for the Free French government or their control over Algeria.
Even more worrying for the Free French government was the fact that the natives were actually becoming just one of the many problems that they were quickly becoming forced to deal with, as the tide of the war had not only turned the native Arab-Berbers against the French, but it had also begun to cause a considerable amount of internal discontent and dissent among the ethnic French and European population, and in particular had caused a significant rift between the more hawkish and conservative Pied Noir elite and the more liberal and metropolitan influenced government of President De Gaulle, while the relationship between the native Pied Noir and exiled Metropolitan French populations of Algeria was one that had already been marked by existing strain and tension even before the breakout of the Algerian conflict
- especially as one took into account the considerable political and ideological differences between the two sides, the continuing failure of government forces to effectively combat their nationalist and Pan-Arab enemies on the battlefield
- as well as the increasing radicalization of the largely Pied Noir political and military apparatus, would only serve to cause even more strain in what had already been a difficult and fragile relationship to begin with, and as the tide of the war began to decisively turn against the French government in late 1958 and 1959, the rift between government and the Pied Noir's would only widen as tensions continued to grow, and by the beginning of 1960; it seemed as if France was on the path towards possible internal conflict.
The situation was made even worse by the fact that many Frenchmen
- having become so disillusioned with the Algiers government, and or having been radicalized to the point of no return (or having been pushed over the edge between loyalty and ideology; due to events on the ground), had actually begun to turn to more covert and nefarious means of continuing the armed struggle against the separatist forces, in the hope of eventually turning the tide of the conflict and ensuring that Algeria would remain under direct French rule, this turn to more unconventional means of warfare would lead to the formation of many ultranationalist parliamentary armies and militias over the course of the war
- created by ideologically motivated Frenchmen and women with the direct purpose of achieving their political goals, one of these groups in particular, the "Organisation de l'armée secrète" (English: Organization of the Secret Army, or OAS for short)[2]
- which was formed on May 29th, 1958 by a group of dissident French military and political officials of Pied Noir and Metropolitan heritage, lead by the Chief of Staff of the French Army, General Jacques Massu[3], would quickly emerge as one of the leading political and military forces within the country almost immediately from the point of it's initial formation, only rivaled in support and available resources by the actual Free French government itself, through as the tide of war began to turn further and further against the government, so did the strength of the OAS coincidentally grow, especially as covert financial support from Paris began to roll into the OAS's pocket; greatly expanding the organizations ability to conduct operations and intelligence gathering missions independently of Algiers.
Figure 2: General Jacques Massu, Chief of Staff of the French Army from 1956-1960, founder of the OAS; and "President" of the "République Française d'Alger-Littoral" (English: French Republic of Algiers-Littoral) from April 29th, 1960 onwards.
The leadership of the OAS did not initially concern itself with the theoretical idea of disposing the Free French government and President Charles de Gaulle
- instead choosing to focus their full attention on their own operations, it soon became clear to them that with both the continuing failure of the French military to stem the nationalist offensive towards the government's coastal strongholds
- and the increasing feeling of discontent and dissatisfaction felt by members of the organization and the general public towards the government and their conduct of the war, that they were going to have to do
something before the situation crossed the point of no return
- and before "French" Algeria was lost to the so called "Arab savages" forever, this feeling of urgency, as well as the continuing deterioration in relations between the Pied Noir elite and the government, were two of the key motivations behind the OAS's decision to order field commanders of armed units in Algiers and Oran to seize key government buildings and transport routes; marking the beginning of a chain of events that would become known to history as the "April 29th Putsch".
While the Algiers government had been well aware of the growing tensions between itself and the military and political apparatus, as well as the general existence of the OAS (through not aware of the full details of it's membership and leadership; or operational strength), it had not anticipated that the coup attempt would come, leaving government-aligned military and police forces within Algiers and Oran ill-prepared to deal with the coup attempt when it did come, however, the OAS units were in fact extremely ill-prepared for the whole affair themselves
- thanks in large part to the hastily organized nature of the coup attempt, nonetheless, the OAS enjoyed significant public support from the majority ethnic French populations of Algiers and Oran, and while significantly ill-prepared
- were still better prepared for a fight then the governments forces were, as such, the coup attempt would ultimately prove to be successful in achieving it's stated objective of removing President de Gaulle and his government from power, paving the way for General Massu to subsequently declare himself the new President of the renamed "République Française d'Alger-Littoral" (a name chosen with eventual reunification with Vichy France in mind)
- and for the OAS to begin securing their newly acquired hold on the colony, a process which would begin that same day with the launching of clean up operations in Algiers and Oran against the remaining opposition forces still operating within the cities, and would ultimately continue over the course of the next several days as OAS armed units fanned out from the cities and into the remaining territory that comprised the so called "loyalist" zone (that is, the part of Algeria that had the largest concentration of ethnic European populations); quickly stamping out any remaining Gaullist opposition that remained soon after.
With the Gaullists more or less out of the way, the French Algerian government would quickly turn it's attention towards consolidating it's newfound political control over Algeria
- a matter which was seen by the government as one that needed to be immediately addressed in the wake of the still looming threat of nationalist encroachment towards the coastal strongholds of "French Algeria", in order to accomplish this process of consolidation, the government would begin by firstly extending and expanding the already existing "state of emergency" that had been declared by the Gaullist government in 1957
- an expansion which granted the government the required constitutional authority they would need to impose their desired restrictions on civil liberties and media, and secondly by introducing and passing a series of legislative measures through the rump parliament in Algiers that granted the Presidency a wide range of "emergency" and borderline dictatorial powers
- supposedly to help the government more "effectively" combat the "dissident and separatist" forces that threatened the security of the French Algerian state, the true reasoning behind these measures (that is, to increase the power of the new regime) were however clear to nearly all, and their passing through parliament would not only spark widespread backlash from urban Arabs, but it would also lead to the breakout of large anti-government protests in major cities all across coastal Algeria, this turn of events (rather unfortunately for the Arabs) would however play directly in the hand of the French Algerian government, who would use the breakout of protest as justification to initiate a swift and brutal crackdown against the ethnic Arab population that resided within the so called "loyalist" zone; crushing all trace of the so called "May Rebellion" within a matter of days.
Even more disturbingly, the protests would also be used by the French Algerian government as justification to pursue a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the openly dissident part of the native Arab-Berber population
- and in particular those of said population that resided within the so called "loyalist" zone of the colony (which consisted of an area along the coast and the interior from Algiers to the Moroccan border), this policy, pursued over a time period between May and December 1960, would involve the forced exile of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Arab-Berber civilians across the border between the loyalist and "lost" zones
- and the coinciding extraction of thousands of ethnic French and loyalist
"Harki" (a generic term used to describe Muslim Algerians that remained loyal to the French government) civilians and military personnel back across the border into the loyalist zone, essentially leaving the rest of Algeria to the metaphorical wolves as the government turned it's attention towards forming a loyalist stronghold along the coast; largely in preparation for the "inevitable" final confrontation[4] between the so called "true followers of god" and the "barbaric Arab horde" that the government believed was to set to come.
Figure 3: Arab tanks moving through Eastern Algeria during the initial days of "Operation: Soaring Eagle"; circa 1960
Several thousand miles away, the government of the United Arab Republic
- who had long been attempting to covertly undermine French control of Algeria through it's proxy support of native Algerian Pan-Arab militias and paramilitary forces, would respond with considerable (and admittedly; understandable) outrage to both the OAS coup d'etat, and the ensuing spout of ethnic violence and crime that was being committed by the French authorities against their ethnic and religious kin in Algeria, this unexpected turn of events that the Algerian Conflict had taken in the prior few weeks would however prove to have a few (possibly) unintended consequences that would come to stem from it, as while this string of violence against the native Algerians was most certainly abhorrent and tragic in nature
- it would ultimately prove to be an extremely useful political tool that had fallen directly into the lap of the government in Cairo, as not only did the ethnic violence against the Algerians serve as a useful rallying cry to rile the general populace up and turn it even more against the Algiers Republic then it already was
- but it would also serve to provide the UAR with it's long desired
casus belli[/b] against the French; giving Nasser the cover that he needed both abroad and internally to give the green light to the upper brass of the military to begin the necessary preparations for conflict with the French.
The UAR's military strategy for the invasion of Algeria and Tunisia - referred to by the Cairo government under the codename of "Operation: Soaring Eagle"[5], was largely based around the idea that the fragile condition and weak defensive positions of the French and Algerian Nationalist's professional and irregular forces in the field - brought bout thanks to the extensive battering and damage that each side had suffered from the prior four years of conflict, could be easily overwhelmed by the use of brute overwhelming numbers, swarming tactics and superior firepower, tactics which in theory would shatter these weak defensive positions - and subsequently open up an easy road towards Algiers and Tunis for the forces of the United Arab People's Liberation Army, this was of course, all in theory, and there was actually no guarantee that said theories would actually translate into battlefield success for UAPLA, nonetheless, the architects of the plan - the Deputy Director of the Mukhābarāt, Saddam Hussein, and General Anwar Sadat, felt extremely confident of both the validity of their plan (which had been partly influenced by the Palestinian and Jordanian Wars; both of which had seen the UAPLA successfully use similar swarming tactics in battle); and of it's chance of succeeding on an actual battlefield; confidence which would ultimately be one of the deciding factors in the government ultimately choosing to implement Hussein and Sadat's plan as the UAPLA's military strategy heading into the conflict.
The invasion would ultimately come to commence in the early morning hours of May 28th - when the utterance of a single code word "الحرية" (Al-hurriiya), gave the United Arab People's Liberation Air Force the go ahead to begin bombing operations against enemy targets along the Libyan-Algerian and Libyan-Tunisian borders [/b]-[/b] with ground assets following behind the air attack shortly thereafter, fighting on the ground between Arab, French and Algerian Nationalist soldiers (as well as scattered Tunisian militias) would begin later that same day, and while the latter two would attempt to put up a valiant fight against the former, even to the point of putting aside their own grudge with each other to work together in battle in a few particular cases - the overwhelming strength in numbers and firepower possessed by the UAPLA would eventually prove to be impossible to overcome for the defenders, leading to much of Algeria and Tunisia being easily overrun by Arab forces within the first few days of the conflict, however, as the Arab forces began to approach closer to the French Algerian government's coastal strongholds - and in turn further from their supply lines and logistical centers in Libya, the successes that they had achieved earlier in the campaign would become increasingly fewer and father between as the conflict drug on, and would disappear almost completely as the fighting began to bog down into a battle of attrition along a defensive line stretching from Central Algeria to Northern Tunisia; resulting in massive casualties and little gain on both sides.
However, the conflict would take a turn for the complicated when Vichy France announced on June 13th, 1960, that it was sending a fleet of ships and a contingent of Marines to Algiers as a show of diplomatic and military support for it's French "brothers" in Algeria, this blatant and overt escalation of what had up to that point been firstly a regional war between multiple parties - and secondly a proxy conflict between the West and the Axis, would cause a rapid deterioration of what had already been an extremely tenuous situation internationally to begin with; and would ultimately instigate what would become known to historians as the "Algerian Crisis"
[1] Even in alternate timelines, Saddam seems to always find a way to force his nefarious self into power; doesn't it?
[2] It may not be a Day of the Jackal; but it will probably be close.
[3] One of the leaders of the May 1958 Putsch that brought De Gaulle to power in OTL
[4] The new OAS lead government is sort of clerico-fascist; so forgive the religious overtone of their rhetoric.
[5] I have never been good at naming military operations, again; sue me!
I'm looking forward to seeing what happens in Algeria, as well as what will happen to Klaus in the future. Hopefully he can get out of that madhouse known as Der Reich soon enough.
