July 19, 1961

[Martin Antonenko]

One And a Half Meters Too Much Start a War!



The year is 1961 - and in the French department of Algeria the fighting between the French army and independence fighters of the Algerian Liberation Front FLN is increasing in intensity and brutality ...:







In neighboring Tunisia, too, people take a great share in the fate of the Algerian "brothers".



The anger of the Tunisians - both the people and the government - are directed against the huge French military base in the Tunisian Bizerta, which is 150 kilometers from the Algerian border ...:

After Tunisia became the French "protectorate" (a glossy term for "colony") in 1881...

... a huge French naval base was built here in 1882, which played an important role in both world wars. An air force base was added after the war.

When Tunisia gained independence from France in 1956, the French simply kept the Bizerta base occupied!

Now they use the air base in particular to load bombers and to carry out air strikes against the FLN fighters in neighboring Algeria.

The whole thing is of course completely illegal and contradicts the contractual agreements that France entered into when Tunisia gained independence - apart from the fact that the French use the base to carry out acts of war from Tunisian soil in the neighboring country, which is also contrary to international law!

The Tunisian government under President Hagib Bourgiba ...



... had called for the return of Bizerta from France several times since 1956 - the French government under President Charles de Gaulle deliberately delayed the negotiations - if it responds to Tunisian demarches at all.

In the summer of 1961, the French took it, the runway of the air force base - without any consultations with the Tunisians! - to be extended so that larger and heavier (with bombs) loaded aircraft (Type B-26can take off towards Algeria...:

**continued next post**

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Part II


In doing so, they build the runway by exactly 1.50 meters too long - and thereby violate Tunisian territory even beyond the borders of the Bizerta base!

With this 1.5 meter injury to their country, the Tunisian side now has the Casus Belli!

Paramilitary Tunisian troops and civillians block the base on July 19, 1961 - and cut it off from the outside world ...:

France reacts like colonial powers have always reacted for a hundred years when they do not see other states as equals:

The government in Paris sends 800 airborne soldiers of the 3rd RCP....

... and the 3rd regiment of the Foreign Legion ...



... and starts a real war against the far inferior Tunisians!

French "Skyhawk" fighter jets attack barricades blocking the base with rockets, several penter advances are started and only stopped after 25 kilometers in Tunisian territory and three cruisers of the Armée de Mer land marine infantry that storms the port of Bizerta.

















The completely one-sided fighting resulted in several hundred dead and over a thousand injured on the Tunisian side ...





24 soldiers fell on the French side...:

After mediation by the then UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld..

... the conflict was initially unbroken with a ceasefire - and the French withdrew to their base after four days of war.

As a further result of Hammerkjöld's efforts, France returned the Bizerta base to Tunisia after the war in Algeria in Oktober 1963...:

This memorial in Bizerta today commemorates the Tunisians killed during the short war ...:

 

[sd0324]

That's a fascinating Memorial.

 

[Airkid]

Of all the soldiers of all the armies of the 20th Century, the French airborne troops always look "the business". Is it me, or does that memorial look like a bloody guillotine??
Good post Martin. I was still at school at the time but have read about it more recently.

Phil