Foreign weapons flowed through Tunisia while the interior Wilayas asphyxiated without reinforcements.

Evidence

With such an outlay in expenditure and effectives, the integrity of the Morice Line became the top military priority for the French during the winter of 1957–8. Its breaching had equally become the supreme objective for the F.L.N.; there were now some ten thousand A.L.N. troops, armed or in training, concentrated in the frontier zone, and the weapons beginning to flow into Tunisia from all over the world had totalled, over the three winter months, 17,000 rifles, 380 machine-guns, 296 automatic rifles, 190 bazookas, thirty mortars and over 100 million rounds of ammunition. Meanwhile, the Wilayas were asphyxiating for want of reinforcements. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 815

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to broader pattern of colonial insurgents relying on external sanctuaries, as in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh trail. — connects to: Independent Morocco and Tunisia gave the F.L.N. sanctuaries that assured its survival.; Algerian refugees in Tunisia outnumbered and threatened the Tunisian state; Bourguiba’s Tunisia was militarily decisive for F.L.N. survival (+5 more)

Related

• Independent Morocco and Tunisia gave the F.L.N. sanctuaries that assured its survival. (similarity 0.85)
• The Morice Line cut off the interior Wilayas from all exterior support. (similarity 0.85)
• French decolonization of Morocco and Tunisia handed the F.L.N. open frontiers (similarity 0.82)
• FLN units staged cross-border ambushes from Tunisian sanctuary (similarity 0.81)
• Without Bourguiba Tunisia the FLN would likely have been crushed militarily (similarity 0.81)
• France’s granting independence to Morocco and Tunisia in 1956 gave the F.L.N. open frontiers (similarity 0.80)
• Algerian fighters in Tunisia outnumbered the infant Tunisian army. (similarity 0.80)
• The Morice Line was an electrified, mined, and patrolled barrier across the Tunisian frontier. (similarity 0.80)
• Undelivered Moroccan weapons crippled the F.L.N.’s Oran operations (similarity 0.79)
• Algerian refugees in Tunisia outnumbered and threatened the Tunisian state (similarity 0.79)
• Bourguiba’s Tunisia was militarily decisive for F.L.N. survival (similarity 0.79)
• Boumedienne rejected attritional frontal attacks on the Morice Line and won by waiting (similarity 0.79)
• Boumedienne replaced mass breaching with pin-prick harassment and low-profile interior warfare (similarity 0.79)
• FLN cross-border raids from Tunisia provoked French bombing of Sakiet (similarity 0.78)
• The French committed 80,000 of their best troops to defend the Morice Line. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• The Morice Line cut off the interior Wilayas from all exterior support. #expands (0.70) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 820