The sacrificial barbouzes served as a decoy that exposed the OAS

Evidence

Thus died the last of Bitterlin’s barbouzes. The operation had been a disastrous failure; on the other hand, information provided by it had enabled Hacq’s professionals to arrest some 600 members of the O.A.S., including sixty-nine killers. Later, Pérez himself admitted that attacking the barbouzes had been a big tactical error: “They were too easy. They were sent to Algiers specifically to be killed — to distract the O.A.S. from getting on with its main job…. We fell into the trap … Godard in fact warned us against it. He was right.” — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1505 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

For Hacq, installed in an office inside the Algiers Police School under the name of “Professor Ermelin”, there now began a five-months’ methodical and relentless hunt, ending only when the O.A.S. had been tracked down. For Bitterlin and his barbouzes it almost immediately opened with disaster. Within three days of his having established Jim Alcheik’s team in a rented villa in the Chemin Raynaud, Bitterlin was ambushed by four Deltas. His driver was badly wounded in the abdomen, while Bitterlin received superficial shoulder wounds; but for the heavy steel of the old Mercedes in which they were driving they would both probably have been riddled with bullets. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1500 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The GPRA regarded 1962 as the war’s most dangerous phase due to the OAS.; France deliberately sacrificed its barbouze operatives to distract the O.A.S. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1505; The barbouzes suffered ambush almost immediately after arriving in Algiers — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1500

Related

• France deliberately sacrificed its barbouze operatives to distract the O.A.S. (similarity 0.92)
• The barbouzes suffered ambush almost immediately after arriving in Algiers (similarity 0.88)
• The anti-O.A.S. barbouzes were amateur amateurs outmatched by the Deltas (similarity 0.85)
• The O.A.S. extorted pieds noirs with surveillance and threats (similarity 0.83)
• Pied noir civilians burned wounded barbouzes alive as they fled (similarity 0.82)
• The state’s anti-O.A.S. barbouzes were hopelessly outmatched amateurs (similarity 0.82)
• The O.A.S. killed France’s secret counter-terrorists by booby-trapping their own printing press (similarity 0.81)
• Pied noir civilians enthusiastically participated in killing O.A.S. targets directly (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• France deliberately sacrificed its barbouze operatives to distract the O.A.S. #corroborates (0.90) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1505
• The barbouzes suffered ambush almost immediately after arriving in Algiers #expands (0.50) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1500