Working clandestinely and outside the legal parameters of the French army and police, the Barbouzes used violent terrorist tactics in an attempt to defeat the OAS.
In the summer of 1961, when Algiers was under regular terrorist attack from the anti-independence paramilitary organisation, the OAS, three supporters of General Charles de Gaulle met in Paris to discuss their plans for response.
[4] Members were recruited from a wide array of French society; existing MPC supporters, former soldiers, and labourers made up the group of several hundred.
Bitterlin was approached by a French military colonel who supplied him with weapons, gave him permission to breach curfew, and requested he “plastiquer several activist cafes in Algiers”.
[15] They were eventually wiped out as a result of two major attacks; one on their residence in early 1962, and the second on the Hotel Rajah in February, where the OAS had learned that the remaining 'Barbouzes' were in hiding.