Mutiny in the Fortress

Most of the men in the small cement fortress near the Moroccan border were Moslem riflemen in French uniform, professionals and veterans who had fought for France in Europe and Indo-China. Only the officer in command and a scattering of other ranks were French. Among the 80 Moslems was Corporal Cheraf Abd el Krim, who in Indo-China had been captured by the Communist Viet Minh and then released.

One day Corporal Abd el Krim disappeared. Before dawn one morning last week, he reappeared, creeping up to the fortress' outer wall with 150 fellagha guerrillas leading mules.

At a prearranged signal, a Moslem sentry on duty let him and a handful of the rebels into the courtyard. A Moslem sergeant and corporal emerged stealthily from one of the huts and greeted him. Each set up a machine gun and trained it on the door of the hut where the Europeans lay sleeping. Abd el Krim stole into another hut, shot the French commander and his top sergeant dead in their beds. Wakened by the noise, the other soldiers jumped up, grabbed their rifles. The two Moslem noncoms mowed them down in the doorway. Before relief could arrive, the rebels withdrew, their mules loaded with a hundred rifles, a dozen machine guns and ammunition. Sixty-five of the company's Moslem riflemen went with them. Twenty rebels and eleven of the defenders were dead. Of the survivors, only 15 Moslems had remained loyal.

In the past, France's native troops have written a proud record for gallantry and their devotion to France. The dashing Spahis helped liberate Paris. The Tirailleurs Algeriens (the troops in the small cement fortress) fought at Monte Cassino and in Indo-China. Barefooted, pillaging Moroccan Goumiers were General Augustin Guillaume's crack force in Italy. Altogether, 100,000 of France's 400,000 troops in North Africa are Moslems. Said a French lieutenant: "This is their country, and the rebels are their countrymen. How can we trust them? All we can do is pack them tight with French officers and hope." In Paris an official admitted: "Right now the question of loyalty is our major preoccupation."

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