Organisation de l'armée secrète

The Organisation de l'armée secrète (OAS — or Organisation armée secrète, lit. "Organisation of the Secret Army" or "Secret Armed Organisation") was a short-lived French dissident far-right paramilitary organisation during the Algerian War (1954–62). The OAS used armed struggle in an attempt to prevent Algeria's independence from French colonial rule. Its motto was L’Algérie est française et le restera ("Algeria is French and will remain so").

The OAS was formed out of existing networks, calling themselves "counter-terrorists", "self-defence groups", or "resistance", which had carried out attacks on the FLN and their perceived supporters since early in the war. It was officially formed in Francoist Spain, in Madrid in January 1961, as a response by some French politicians and French military officers to the 8 January 1961 referendum on self-determination concerning Algeria, which had been organized by General de Gaulle.

After the March 1962 Evian agreements, which granted independence to Algeria and marked the beginning of the exodus of the pieds-noirs, the OAS tried by a campaign of assassinations and bombings to stop the ongoing political process. This campaign culminated in Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry's 1962 assassination attempt against president de Gaulle in the Paris suburb of Le Petit-Clamart. Another prominent target was the existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, who supported the FLN.

Armée secrète

The Armée secrète, created in 1943, was an organisation of French resistance fighters during World War II set up by Jean Moulin. It resulted from an amalgamation of three smaller resistance groups:

It was mainly operative in the south of France, for instance in the Rhône-Alpes region (R1) and in the Massif Central (Auvergne ( R6), Limousin (R5), the southeast (R2) and southwest (R4). It corresponds to the organization used by Combat.

In 1944, the Armée secrète made up the French forces of the interior along with the Organisation de résistance de l'armée and the National Front (FTP; Francs-tireurs et partisans français).

by region

References

Armée secrète (Belgium)

The Secret Army or AS (French: Armée secrète, Dutch: Geheim Leger) was the largest organization in the Belgian Resistance during the Second World War. It was loyal to the Belgian Government in Exile.

Background

Following the defeat of Belgium in the 18 days' campaign of 1940, many former soldiers and officers from the army formed the Légion Belge in the spring of 1941. The Légion was greatly weakened by political squabbles amongst its members and was reluctant to work with the government in exile.

After the arrest of one of the leaders of the Légion, Charles Claser, the movement reformed with the name Armée de Belgique. The Armée was hit by a wave of arrests in 1943 after it was infiltrated by undercover Abwehr agents.

From 1943, many former members of the Armée de Belgique and Légion Belge reformed into a new group, with the support of the government in exile called the Armée Secrète (AS).

History

As in it predecessors, many of the founders of the AS were former members of the Belgian Army and so the group followed a more traditional military structure than other resistance groups in the country. Its objectives were not exclusively military; many of the founding members of the group predicted the need for a national force to police the country after liberation as well as providing an organization which the Government in Exile could negotiate with.