Paris, September 1961 and the war in Algeria shows no end in sight. John B put on a cheery game covering the authorities response to a planned Algerian Nationalist (FLN) offensive in Paris, complicated by the disgruntled OAS colonialists - Day of the Jackal and all that.
Rather like our Berlin Noir and Siege of Leningrad games, it was greatly enhanced by Johns provision of period maps. This one was a high resolution map of 1960s Paris, and somewhat useful for figuring out where things were as much of the action took place in les banlieus.
The session was run as a committee game, with us all taking on various roles in the French security forces, headed by Interior Minister Frey (Micheal).
I was cast as this lovely chap, Jacques Furet, head of the Special Services Detachment of the CRS and veteran of the Battle of Algiers in the late 1950s. While the CRS is mainly known for riot control, it is a paramilitary force outside of the Police line of command with a major anti-terrorist role too. Unlike the Gendarmerie, it is a civilian force and not liable for overseas deployment.
I had 10 companies of CRS available, around 1400 men, heavily armed and not averse to banging heads together.
Vive la France! An excuse to wear a lot of silly hats, but mainly berets and kepis (I do have a kepi, but Furet isn't in the police).
I wont run through the entire cast, but Jim was the Police Prefect and John A his trusty deputy with around 7000 police in the Paris area. There were various obscure police intelligence units represented - some 500 detectives under Tim, Russell and Ian both ran undercover infilitration and intelligence units with bizarre acronyms as names. Pete ran a military intelligence detachment. All the units were real, and by and large the characters were all real people too.
This was a more detailed early 1960s Metro map, which came in handy as the incidents unfolded.
Briefly, following the murder of a policeman and a bomb outrage at a school it became apparent that the FLN were active in the city. Intelligence led us to believe that they were operating in areas heavily populated by Algerian immigrants, specifically Clichy in the northwest and Bagneux in the south.
As might be expected, various intelligence gathering and public order measures took place. My main job was deploying units of the CRS to areas of potential or actual unrest, while maintaining a reserve for contingencies. The situation wasn't helped by the OAS who kept stirring things up with a number of provocative shootings across the city.
This was also a very useful map, showing the central Arrondisements. Clichy is north west of the 17e arrondisement and Bagneux southwest of the 14e.
The situation continued to spiral out of control with large demonstrations, 150 detentions of 'people of interest', unrest at the Sorbonne and a curfew imposed on Clichy and Bagneux and the Metro closed. Gunmen made an appearance in Clichy and a CRS officer was shot. The rules of engagement were loosened. In a dire development, a Sorbonne student died under enhanced interrogation.
Intelligence assessed that there were no less than 75 armed FLN operatives in the city, organised as three platoons and a huge demonstration was planned for the centre of Paris, to coincide with armed uprisings in Clichy and Bagneux. As Tuesday evening drew to a close, the Interior Minister passed our assessment of the situation on to President De Gaulle and requested that the Army be placed on stand-by to aid the civilian power. There had already been one coup attempt, there couldn't be another.
And on that happy note, we broke for the evening.
Things duly went from bad to worse, there was considerable unrest on the streets, not helped when we imposed a citywide curfew. There were more murders of policemen, but so far we'd not managed to capture a single actual FLN terrorist, just local hard men along with incarcerating most of the Muslim clergy in the city. The police complained the CRS were going over the top in their crowd dispersal approach, the CRS complained the Police were being too heavy handed.
Matters came to a head around a large demonstration in the city centre planned for 17th October. The Interior Minister gave us permission to ban any gatherings of more than five people, so our plan was to prevent the demo from even forming up by dispersing and then arresting any large groups making their way into the city centre. We designated a football stadium as a holding area for detainees and soldiers were drafted in to provide perimeter security.
Intelligence indicated the FLN intended to stage an armed uprising to coincide with the demo. It also indicated the OAS planned an assassination campaign against the FLN leadership and leading left wing intellectuals. We were fairly sure there was at least one OAS mole in the command team and the displeasure of most of us was passed on, although it was indicated that a short term blind eye would be turned to attacks on the FLN, given the failure of our own intelligence efforts.
The day of the big demo arrived, and despite our best efforts and thousands of arrests, a large group assembled in the city centre. Rioting broke out in the football ground and even worse, police and CRS came under fire in Clichy and a fierce gun battle raged. The two CRS companies in Clichy were tied up engaging the terrorists, but the police reported they had captured dozens of terrorists, so many that they couldn't hold them and they were 'escaping into the Seine'. Another unit of CRS were despatched to escort the prisoners back to Police HQ, but when they arrived, there were only three left. Bodies washed up in the Seine for days afterwards, the police had murdered the prisoners.
On that rather sombre note, we ended having finally regained a measure of control of the streets and saved De Gaulles regime (again). The game was based on the real life October 1961 Massacre, which was covered up by the French State for decades. It only came to light in the late 1990s following the conviction of the Police Prefect for his role in the deportation of Jews to concentration camps in WW2. In real life the FLN won Algerian independence in 1962, and De Gaulle managed to hang on to power until 1969 after changing the way Presidential elections were conducted. He finally resigned following the uprisings of 1968.
The only bright spot was that however repressive the measures we'd put in place in the game, they were relatively mild compared to what the French Police and CRS actually did. One of our group had first hand experience facing the CRS in 1968, and said they weren't any better then. Civil Wars really are nastiest, and I cant help being reminded that the perpetrators of the holocaust were just ordinary people, but part of an organisation and culture which promoted racist violence from the top down. It is more shocking as France is supposed to be a western democracy, not rounding up and murdering its own citizens. I'm sure nothing like that would happen today.
An interesting, thought provoking and somewhat depressing session. Wikipedia notes on the massacre here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Paris_massacre
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