Word: bigeard
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...French army's soul-destroying trial by fire in Algeria there has so far emerged one superlatively good combat commander, a 42-year-old ex-bank clerk from Toul named Marcel Bigeard (TIME. April 28). So notable is Colonel Bigeard's tactical genius and so successful his Spartan training methods that for three years, whenever French troops scored one of their rare clearcut victories over the Algerian rebels, French newspaper readers automatically looked for the name of his 3rd Colonial Paratroop Regiment. Last week, to their confusion, Frenchmen learned that there was no longer any place in Algeria...
...root of Bigeard's troubles lay the publicity that his military triumphs had won for him. Had the tall, sinewy colonel been a graduate of St. Cyr (France's West Point), his superiors might have put up with him. But they begrudged such acclaim to a "jumped-up ranker" who perennially poked fun at "generals with middle-aged spread...
Noncom's War. Last April, Bigeard's enemies succeeded in getting him assigned to command a special school designed to train junior officers in "revolutionary warfare." Unlike many other paratroop officers, he stood aloof from the army coup of last May, earned the further dislike of the balcony generals and colonels of Algiers by scornfully condemning their coup ("The army, instead of waging war, is indulging in politics"). And early this month, when Paris Presse's Reporter Jean Larteguy visited Bigeard's school in search of material for a series on "the sickness of the French...
Onions v. Wine. Though he lost an eye in Indo-China, he was sent to Algeria to take command of the crack Third Colonial Parachute Regiment. A martinet but the idol of his men, Bigeard whipped them into shape by running them as much as 15 miles at a time. He made them shave every day, no matter where they were, doled out raw onions instead of the traditional wine ration because "wine reduces stamina." With all-night marches and sudden paratroop raids, he won every engagement, became so successful at outwitting the rebels ("He thinks like a fellagha," says...
...Great Honor." It all began last fall when Bigeard's men captured an Algerian terrorist named Zerrouk, and persuaded him to change sides. Still outwardly a rebel, Zerrouk slipped back into the casbah as Bigeard's chief informer. Thanks to him, one terrorist leader after another fell into French hands, until Zerrouk found himself Terrorist No. 2, outranked only by the wily and elusive Yacef Saadi. Communicating only through a network of F.L.N. intermediaries and "letterboxes," Zerrouk (in messages dictated by Bigeard) described his own feats so glowingly that Saadi ordered him to be more cautious...