The death of Bournazel

Gérardin, 1987

p. 43-45

The assault began at 7 a.m. About a hundred metres from the objective, Bournazel turned towards Sergeant-Major Lelong's section (21st goum); “he had barely taken a few steps when he collapsed, both hands clenched on his belt: from a staggered low wall at the foot of peak 6 the fatal shot had come”. He got up again and tried to hold back his men, who were falling back; a second bullet shattered his wrist. It was 7.20. He was carried off by a few men, then by mokhazenis to the medical captain Vial, and died “very close to the summit”.

« à peine a-t-il fait quelques pas qu'il s'abat, les deux mains crispées sur le ceinturon : d'une murette en chicane, au pied du piton 6, le coup fatal est parti. »

⚠ Commemorative account without cited source, probably based on military testimonies (Sergeant-Majors Lelong and Combémorel are named).

Wikipédia (français) — « Henri de Bournazel »

“On 28 February, obeying General Giraud's order to cover his red tunic with a djellaba, he went up to assault Bou Gafer and fell, wounded a first time, rallied his men, charged again, but was hit again. He died of his wounds.”

⚠ The djellaba detail does not appear in Gérardin; the section is unreferenced and probably derives from biographical literature (Bordeaux, 1935).

Wikipédia (français) — « Bataille de Bougafer »

The 28 February assault, “launched by the auxiliaries followed by the legionnaires”, failed; “the French lost more than 64 killed, including 12 legionnaires and Bournazel”.

Saulay, 1983

p. 58-59

On 26 February General Giraud has Bournazel ordered to wear a khaki gandoura over his red jacket. On the 28th, gravely wounded in the stomach, he gets up, is wounded a second time, then is carried back by two legionnaires.

« Le capitaine de Bournazel, qui vient d'être grièvement blessé au ventre, se relève avec une énergie surhumaine et se dirige vers ses goumiers qu'il sent fléchir. »

Source pages : Bordeaux, 1935, p. 324 · Saulay, 1983, p. 59

Soubrier, vers 1946

p. 1363-1365

Around 1946 an unnamed sheikh tells the journalist that he was at Bougafer on the day Bournazel died, but did not see him go up to the assault; he admits he “may” have shot at him (“We did not choose our targets”) and adds that at that spot “it was a terrible mêlée”. The journalist notes that Bournazel had not put on his red tunic that day, and places his fall at the foot of a ridge defended by a steep slope, with neither inscription nor monument.

« J'ai tiré sur Bournazel... C'est possible ! Nous ne choisissions pas nos cibles... »

⚠ Testimony collected thirteen years after the events, translated and shaped by a journalist in a heroicising account; the sheikh is not named. Useful as a trace of a local voice, not as proof.

Source pages : Soubrier, vers 1946, p. 1364

Spillmann et al., 2007

trad. arabe p. 114-115 (orig. p. 142-143, n. 31)

Spillmann, who commanded the Draa harka, does not recount Bournazel's death: he names him among the officers of the eastern group who were killed, after repeated assaults on 21, 24, 25 and 28 February that came up against the cliffs of the Bou Gafer; the command then confines itself to tightening the blockade.

⚠ An officer who took part in the conquest, writing in 1936; read in M. Boukbout's Arabic translation (2007), whose notes reproach him for passing over the violence of the blockade.

Mellou, 2023

Arabic Post, 19 mars 2023

Family tradition published in 2023 by M. Mellou, after his mother, who had it from her own mother, present at the Bougafer: an unnamed fighter of the Aït ʿAïsa ou Brahim is said to have brought down Bournazel with a single bullet in the stomach, a silver bullet cast from bracelets and rings given by the women, the only one able, according to the story, to reach him.

⚠ A story handed down over two generations and published ninety years after the events; the silver bullet is a motif known from many stories. It attests a local memory, not the identity of the shooter. The author also attributes the silver bullet to a “French version”, after a 2001 article; no French source consulted contains it.

Bordeaux, 1935

p. 324-327 (témoignage du médecin-major Vial)

Bordeaux transcribes the “full account” of médecin-major Vial: Bournazel, followed by a red burnous, is wounded in the stomach (in the “right side” later in the same account), gets up, is hit by a second bullet in the right arm, then is carried back by two faithful men and a few legionnaires. He dies on the mountain after Vial's care, refusing to be taken down to the aid post. Bordeaux reports the order to cover his red tunic with a “grey djellaba” and calls the words attributed to him then “stupid and arranged remarks”.

« Bournazel, blessé au flanc droit, s'est relevé et, dans un effort prodigieux et meurtrier, il a gravi lentement le glacis jusqu'au pied de la muraille, retenant les fuyards de la canne et du revolver. Une deuxième balle l'a atteint au bras droit. »

⚠ 1935 hagiographic biography; Vial's testimony is known only through this transcription. The detail of the wounded man “dragged by the feet” over the rocks recurs in Saulay (1983): the two accounts may not be independent. Source vocabulary kept in quotations.

Source pages : Bordeaux, 1935, p. 324 · Bordeaux, 1935, p. 326

Hart, 1984

p. 179-181

Hart writes that Bournazel, “the Red Man” in his scarlet silham, was killed in the fourth assault wave, on 28 February, “by a simultaneous bullet in the side and a stone in the head”. Assou knew his reputation but never met him.

« and in the last one, Capt. de Bournazel was killed, by a simultaneous bullet in the side and a stone in the head. »

⚠ Hart does not say where the stone detail comes from; it is absent from Saulay's and Bordeaux's accounts. Stones thrown by the defenders are, however, attested by all sources.

Source pages : Hart, 1984, p. 180