Battle of Agounennda

The Battle of Agounennda was an engagement of the Algerian War fought 23 May-25 May 1957 between the French 3rd Colonial Parachute Regiment under Lieutenant Colonel Marcel Bigeard and FLN’s Commando 41 (‘Ali Khodja’) under Si Azzedine. Bigeard and his regiment were sent to hunt down the Commando after it had carried out several successful ambushes against French units. They met at Agounennda where the French paratroopers tried to ambush the FLN f... more

The Battle of Agounennda was an engagement of the Algerian War fought 23 May-25 May 1957 between the French 3rd Colonial Parachute Regiment under Lieutenant Colonel Marcel Bigeard and FLN’s Commando 41 (‘Ali Khodja’) under Si Azzedine. Bigeard and his regiment were sent to hunt down the Commando after it had carried out several successful ambushes against French units. They met at Agounennda where the French paratroopers tried to ambush the FLN force, but the FLN discovered the French and instead concentrated their force against an outlying French company. Bigeard managed to redeploy and surround the FLN force, it withdraw successfully albeit with heavy casualties. In early May 1957, Commando 41 (‘Ali Khodja’) of the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) routed a Spahi unit, killing 60 men while only losing 7 men themselves. Roughly two weeks later, on 21 May, the same unit ambushed a detachment of the 5th Algerian Tirailleur Battalion near Médéa. A captain and 15 tirailleurs where... less