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First Battle of El Djorf

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First Battle of El Djorf
Part of Algerian War
Date22–29 September 1955[1]
Location
Tébessa, Algeria
Result Algerian Victory
Belligerents
 France ALN
Commanders and leaders
André Beaufre Chihani Bachir[2]
Lazhar Cheriet
Laghrour Abbes
Adjel Adjoul
Casualties and losses
45 killed
40 wounded

The First Battle of El Djorf (or El-Djorf) took place on 22 September 1955, during the Algerian War, between the National Liberation Army and the forces of the French Army.

Background

Algeria had been under French rule since 1830 and had experienced numerous revolts against the government since then. These revolts are said to have failed because of them being regional segmental revolts.[citation needed] The revolution of November 1954 was, in contrast, a national revolution.

The battle occurred a year after the start of the Algerian War. It took place in the Aures, in what was known as the heart of the revolution. The French military had arrested Mustapha Benboulaïd (aka. the lion of the Aures) who was the head of the ALN in that region.

An internal conflict in the ALN resulted in Colonel Bachir Chihani being named head of the Willaya I. He started by gathering the troops that had dispersed over the region, and managed to organize a meeting in the region of El Djorf, north of current Tebessa Province. This meeting was aimed at reorganising the troops to relaunch military activities. 300 fighters attended this meeting.

The French army launched Operation "Timgad" and had no idea that it was about to fall on the meeting of the chiefs of Aurès and Nementchas that Bachir Chihani had organised between 18 and 23 September 1955.

Battle

The French deployed troops to encircle the meeting place and to quash the revolution. When Chihani was done with his speech, he got the information that they were encircled.

After calming the troops, he divided them in small groups under the commands of Adjel Adjoul, Sidi Henni, Abbés Laghrour, Lazhar Cheriet and other officers of the ALN, and ordered them to attack precise points of the opposing formations.

The battle lasted many days and nights, with the ALN finally succeeding in breaking the enclosure. 220 of the 300 fighters made it out of the encirclement.

[Adjel Adjoul]] is wounded. 45 soldiers of the National Liberation Army were killed and 40 others taken prisoner.[3][4]

Aftermath

The leaders blamed Bachir Chihani for his recklessness in organising a rally as important as the one in El-Djorf, neglecting the basic rules of security, and call for self-criticism on his part, which did not come.[3]

In the context of the war of memories with the former colonial power, the Algerian authorities decided to make the Battle of El Djorf, which took place from 20 to 28 September 1955 in the Nemenchas Mountains in eastern Algeria, a place of memory for the Algerian nation in the 2000s[5].

  • "Tébessa commemorates the 57th anniversary of the Battle of El Djorf". Archived from the original on November 5, 2013. Retrieved November 21, 2012. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  • "معركة الجرف". Archived from the original on November 5, 2013. Retrieved November 21, 2012. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  • Histoire: La bataille d’El Djorf

Bibliography

  • Mohamed Larbi Medaci (2001). Les Tamiseurs de sables. Algiers: Anep. pp. 251 pages. ISBN 9961903714.

References

  1. ^ معركة جبل الجرف (ولاية تبسة)....اضخم واكبر معارك ثورة التحرير الوطني (read online (arabic)
  2. ^ Tébessa commemorates the 57th anniversary of the Battle of El Djorf (read online)
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Siari Tengour, Ouanassa. Histoire contemporaine de l'Algérie. Nouveaux objets (in French). CRASC (Éditions). ISBN 9789961813416. Retrieved 2019-09-09.
  5. ^ Article ([[Special:EditPage/{{{1}}}|edit]] | [[Talk:{{{1}}}|talk]] | [[Special:PageHistory/{{{1}}}|history]] | [[Special:ProtectPage/{{{1}}}|protect]] | [[Special:DeletePage/{{{1}}}|delete]] | [{{fullurl:Special:WhatLinksHere/{{{1}}}|limit=999}} links] | [{{fullurl:{{{1}}}|action=watch}} watch] | logs | views)
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