who’s Ouassini Bouarfa, the soldier from Algeria of the Kieffer commando? | EUROtoday

Published on : 05/28/2024 – 5:47 p.m.Modified : 05/28/2024 – 5:48 p.m.

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He was the one fighter from Algeria to have been a part of the well-known Kieffer commando, the one French battalion to have landed on the seashores of Normandy on June 6, 1944, as a part of Operation Overlord.

Born in 1919 in Maghnia, in western Algeria, naturalized French in 1939, Ouassini Bouarfa joined the French navy at a really younger age, in Toulon (south of France), the place he perfected his expertise as a nurse .

In 1940, after the signing of the armistice between France and Nazi Germany, he joined the West Indies, then Great Britain the place he joined the ranks of the French commando created in 1942 and commanded by Lieutenant Commander Philippe Kieffer. The latter joined General Charles de Gaulle the day after his name to resistance, June 18, 1940.

To acquire the belief of his army superiors, Ouassini Bouarfa undergoes preparation that’s as troublesome as it’s grueling earlier than turning into a combat-ready soldier.

When the Kieffer commando obtained the order to take part within the Landing, alongside the Allies, Ouassini Bouarfa was one of many 177 males able to set foot on the Normandy seashores.

On “D-Day”, he was confronted with a deluge of German hearth in the course of the first Allied assault waves, on Ouistreham seaside. Although hit in the course of the assault on a fortified Wehrmacht place, he continued to deal with his wounded comrades whereas ready to be evacuated.

After a couple of days of remedy, Ouassini Bouarfa returned to the French inexperienced berets and the Normandy battlefield. A number of months later, in November, he returned to fight in Vlissingen, within the Netherlands, the place his commando participated in operations to safe entry to the port of Antwerp, in Belgium.

Military medal and knight of the Legion of Honor

On May 24, 1945, a couple of days after the German capitulation, Ouassini Bouarfa, then aged 25, participated along with his brothers in arms within the parade of the allied forces on the Champs-Élysées. On web site, tens of hundreds of French individuals got here to greet the heroes of the Kieffer commando whose fame has gone far past the Normandy countryside.

At the top of the Second World War, he continued to work as a nurse on the Toulon army hospital earlier than leaving the ranks of the military for good in 1957.

Read additionallyLanding in Normandy: the 177 of the Kieffer commando have all discovered a face

Already adorned with the army medal, the very best French distinction for non-commissioned officers and troopers, he was made a knight of the Legion of Honor in 2004, in recognition of his braveness and his efforts to liberate France and for his profession. as a nursing quartermaster.

In reminiscence of this hero who died in Arjuzanx-Morcenx, within the Landes, on July 13, 2007, the 2014-2017 promotion of the Army Paramedical Personnel School (EPPA) was named “First Master Bouarfa”.

Hero in France, unknown in Algeria

Ouassini Bouarfa's household and pals who stay in Algeria keep in mind him. Like his cousin Habiri Bouarfa, writer of a ebook on the army profession of commando hero Kieffer. But he has not but obtained “authorization to sell it in bookstores”.

Reached by phone by France 24, he says he noticed Ouassini Bouarfa a few times in 1982 when he returned to his native nation.

“He left Algeria at the age of sixteen because he wanted at all costs to join the French army,” says Habiri Bouarfa. “He requested his father if he licensed him to take the French nationality. His father advised him sure, however on situation of remaining Muslim and Arab.

And to conclude: “Ouassini Bouarfa is better known in France than in Algeria, where no tribute has been paid to him, and where his career is only recognized by his relatives and a few historians.”

This article was tailored from Arabic. The authentic may be discovered right here.