Ambush of Palestro

The ambush of Palestro, or ambush of Djerrah, took place on May 18, 1956, during the Algerian war, near the village of Djerrah in the region of Palestro (now Lakhdaria) in Kabylie during which a section of about forty men from the National Liberation Army (ALN), under the command of Lieutenant Ali Khodja, ambushed a section of 21 men from the 9th Colonial Infantry Regiment of the French Army, commanded by Second Lieutenant Hervé Artur.

The confrontation resulted in the loss of almost all French soldiers; only one survived. The losses on the Algerian side are unknown, but estimated to have been one dead and possibly one wounded, perhaps a few dead.

Historical context
After 1 November 1954, Algeria was at war. As the armed insurgency led by the FLN grew in size, the French army's numbers fell, because Moroccan troops were returning to their independent country, the release of the troops under the contingent's flags and increasing desertions of Algerian spahis and tirailleurs. The president of the Council Guy Mollet resolves to recall the available of the contingent in order to increase the military strength in Algeria of 200 000 soldiers Recently elected to ensure "peace in North Africa," he nevertheless planned a repressive policy and refused any negotiation on independence until a ceasefire was reached; and for the first time a socialist government, supported by the Communists, decides to send the contingent. In May 1956, the first recalled landed in Algeria. The FLN, for its part, organized in September 1955, very shortly after the events of Constantine, one of its first operations of propaganda, Abane Ramdane, head of the zone of Algiers inviting in the maquis of Palestro the journalist Robert Barrat, to whom are presented the claims of the independence movement; Barrat also meets with djounoud, or soldiers of the NLA.

The protagonists
The ambush pitted the French Army with the Algerian National Liberation Army with, on the French side, a section of the 2nd Battalion of the 9th Colonial Infantry Regiment commanded by Second Lieutenant Hervé Artur and on the Algerian side a part of the Ali Khodja commando, several groups with a total of some forty djounouds according to certain sources.



Staff of the ALN wilaya 4, 1956–1957. Ali Khodja was born in Algiers on January 12, 1933, and in October 1955, three of them deserted from the Hussein Dey barracks, carrying with them several weapons. Having joined the maquis of Palestro, led by Amar Ouamrane, Khodja was entrusted with the command of a section of the ALN, strong of one hundred men, who quickly distinguished himself by his actions, 9 later becoming the commando Ali Khodja one of the legends of the ALN. In order to recover weapons and clothing, the Khodja unit, like all other units of the NLA at that time, favored ambushes, which were executed in accordance with the motto "Strike, Recover and Stall ". Hervé Artur was born in Paris on September 17, 1926; after his military service in Algeria, he prepares an aggregation of philosophy which he abandons for a job in a transport company; At the end of April 1956 he was called back to his service and served with the rank of second lieutenant in the 9th Colonial Infantry Regiment stationed in Kabylie. This officer, who believes in the pacification of the French army, is in command of a section of twenty infantry consisting of two sergeants, two corporals, two corporals, and fourteen soldiers, in the civilian. On the morning of 18 May, he went on a reconnaissance mission to the villages near Ouled Djerrah.

Sources and bibliography

 * Raphaëlle Branche, L’Embuscade de Palestro : Algérie 1956, Paris, Armand Colin, 2010, 256 p. (ISBN 978-2200256074, read online [archive]).
 * François Buton, « Peut-on dévoiler les imaginaires ? Questions sur l'interprétation d'un massacre », Le Mouvement Social, vol. 1, no 238,&lrm; 2012, p. 81-86.
 * Raphaëlle Branche, « Le récit historique et les intentions des acteurs. Réponse à François Buton », Le Mouvement Social, vol. 1, no 238,&lrm; 2012, p. 87-93.
 * Raphaëlle Branche, « 18 mai 1956 : l'embuscade de Palestro/Djerrah », dans Abderrahmane Bouchène, Jean-Pierre Peyroulou, Ouanassa Siari Tengour et Sylvie Thénault, Histoire de l'Algérie à la période coloniale : 1830–1962, Paris, Alger, Éditions La Découverte et Éditions Barzakh, 2012, 717 p. (ISBN 978-2707173263), p. 514-519.
 * Ugo Iannucci, Soldat dans les gorges de Palestro. Journal de guerre, Aléas, 2

Documentaries

 * 2012 : Palestro, Algérie : histoires d'une embuscade, de Rémi Lainé et Raphaëlle Branche (d'après Raphaëlle Branche), durée 1 h 25, coproduction : ARTE France, Les Poissons Volants watch online, on arte.tv, 19 mars 2012, consulted in 20 septembre 2013 [archive]]