A 1957 engagement near Tlemcen in which 330 FLN fighters repulsed a French force of 30,000, inflicting heavy casualties and demonstrating Algerian guerrilla effectiveness.
Key Facts
- Date
- 20 April 1957 (16th day of Ramadan)
- French force size
- 30,000 soldiers with tanks, planes, helicopters
- FLN fighter count
- 330 mujahideen
- French casualties (killed)
- 500–700 soldiers
- French wounded
- 400 seriously wounded; 1 aircraft shot down
- Algerian casualties
- 120 killed, 60 wounded
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
During the Algerian War of Independence, French colonial authorities sought to suppress FLN resistance in the Tlemcen region. On the 16th day of Ramadan 1957, French commanders dispatched a force of 30,000 troops supported by tanks, 30 reconnaissance aircraft, and 12 helicopters to confront a small FLN contingent in the Fellaoucene area.
On 20 April 1957, 330 FLN mujahideen armed with makeshift rifles engaged and repulsed the vastly larger French colonial force near Fellaoucene. Despite an enormous disparity in equipment and manpower, the Algerian fighters inflicted between 500 and 700 French soldiers killed, 400 seriously wounded, and shot down one aircraft, while sustaining only 120 dead and 60 wounded themselves.
Following the battle, the French army retaliated by bombing the entire Fellaoucene region and the Trara mountains from Nedroma to Ghazaouet with napalm, and forcibly displaced the local civilian population. The engagement highlighted the tactical resilience of FLN guerrilla forces against conventional military power and underscored the brutal reprisals visited upon Algerian civilians during the war.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
1 belligerent
Side B
1 belligerent