Troops trained for mountain fighting proved unfit for urban policing, with fatal results.

Evidence

A few days previously their commanding officer, Colonel Goubard, had reported to the Commander-in-Chief, General Ailleret, that his Tirailleurs — averaging twenty years of age and with only eighteen months’ training — had proved themselves in the djebel but were in no way conditioned or trained for police activities in the city. Ailleret promised that the Tirailleurs would not be used in Algiers; but somehow, incredibly, the order was never passed down. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1603

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader failure of command hierarchy and institutional neglect running through the Algerian war narrative.