Excerpt from "Histoire succincte de l'Aéronautique Navale (1910-1998)" written by VA Roger Vercken (ARDHAN)

In 1954, the French Government decided to stop deploying military forces in Tunisia which was under protectorate since 1883. The country became independent in 1957, when Habib Bourguiba became president of the Tunisian Republic. In spite of those events, France still had military forces (Army, Navy and Air Force) based at Bizerte. In 1961, Bourguiba asked to France, military evacuation. On July 17th, militiamen belonged to néo-Destour party fired French helicopters. Paratroopers carried by Noratlases which were protected by Corsairs of the 12F and 17F squadrons, were dropped. After those strikes, Admiral Amman decided to carry on counter-strike against Tunisian vehicles. Corsairs armed with guns, bombs, rockets and Aquilons of the 11F squadron armed with guns and rockets intervened between July 19th and July 21th, carrying on 150 missions during that War. The ceasefire was declared on July 23th.