Albert Dovecar was a sergeant in the French 1st Foreign Parachute Regiment

1st Foreign Parachute Regiment

The 1st Foreign Parachute Regiment was an airborne unit of the Foreign Legion. It fought in the First Indochina War, Suez Crisis and Algerian War, but was disbanded after taking part in a putsch against the French government in 1961....

 of the French Foreign Legion. He was executed by firing squad at the Fort du Trou d'Enfer for his part in the assassination of French National Police Divisional Commissaire

Commissaire de police

Commissaire de police is a rank in the French National Police. Every commune with a population of more than 30,000-50,000 has a commissaire in charge of its police force and larger communes have more than one...

 Roger Gavoury

Roger Gavoury

Roger Gavoury, born 7 April, 1911 at Mello, in Oise. Gavouy was Divisional Commissaire of the French National Police and Central Commissaire of Algiers, in addition to duties associated with French Morocco. He was assassinated by two members of the OAS, Claude Piegts and Albert Dovecar, at the...

 during the Algerian War.

Biography

Dovecar was born at Tužno

Tužno

Tužno is a village in Croatia....

 in Croatia

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

. He enlisted in the Foreign Legion on 5 April 1957 at Marseille

Marseille

Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...

 under the name of "Paul Dodevart," claiming birth in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

 on 20 February 1938. After training at the Foreign Legion training base at Mascara, he was assigned to the 1st Parachute Regiment (Foreign Legion). Dovecar took back his original name on his promotion to sergeant on 16 June 1960. Dovecar participated in the Algerian War, receiving three citations and one combat wound. After his participation in the Algiers putsch of 1961, he decided to break his contract on 27 April 1961 to join the Organisation armée secrète (OAS)

Organisation armée secrète

The Organisation de l'armée secrète was a short-lived, French far-right nationalist militant and underground organization during the Algerian War . The OAS used armed struggle in an attempt to prevent Algeria's independence...

.

Within the OAS, Dovecar was the leader of Commando Delta

Commando Delta

The Commando Delta organizations were assassination teams under the control of the Organisation armés secrète in Algeria during the early 1960s. The teams "interdicted" European neighborhoods by assassinating Muslims who entered. The Commandos Delta were organized by Roger Degueldre in 1961...

 Team 1, under the orders of Lieutenant Roger Degueldre

Roger Degueldre

Lieutenant Roger Hercule Gustave Degueldre was a leader of the OAS Delta Commandos in the last months of French rule in Algeria. There is some dispute about his origins...

. Dovecar and Claude Piegts

Claude Piegts

Claude Piegts, born 1 January 1934 at Castiglione, French Algeria, shot by firing squad in France at the Fort du Trou d'Enfer 7 June 1962, was a pied-noir and a member of the Organisation de l'armée secrète...

 assassinated Commissaire Roger Gavoury on 31 May 1961. Dovecar was apprehended at Degueldre's headquarters on the Boulevard Marcel Duclos in Algiers

Algiers

' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...

, with five of his companions on 11 October 1961.

Tried for "participation in a conspiracy formed with the intention of causing the citizens to arm one against the other, of murder by ambush, and desertion in times of peace," Dovecar was condemned to death by a French tribunal. He was shot on 7 June 1962 at the Fort du Trou d'Enfer, along with Claude Piegts.

3,680 people were convicted for their participation in the OAS or related activities, and 41 were convicted of capital crimes. Of the 41 condemnations, only four were executed: Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry

Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry

Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry was a French military air weaponry engineer who attempted to assassinate French President Charles de Gaulle on 22 August 1962, following Algerian independence...

, Degueldre, Piegts and Dovecar.

Sources

• This article incorporates text translated from the corresponding French Wikipedia article as of October 18, 2010.