French Torture During the War

The French eventually found themselves knee deep in the Algerian War and the need to gather information soon became apparent. The urgency and all that was at stake caused man of the troops to resort to Torture.

Justification
While Torture was illegal by French laws the troops in Algeria soon found it to be the most effective method of gathering information. This led to many officers encouraging the use of torture but never outright stating it. Many French troops felt that the urgency and its effectiveness justified its use.

The information gathered often led to arrests and the stopping of plots before they occurred. The use of terrorism and the odd war the French found themselves was yet another justification for these "counter-revolutionary" methods.

Methods
French Torture was carried out in a multitude of way. Often times the French found themselves calling in "specialists" when extracting the information was urgently desired.

Generally speaking the prisoners were normally stripped naked and then beaten. After being beaten the actually methods would be used. The most common of these methods were electric and suspension torture. Water torture was also fairy common.

Public Opinion
At first the use of torture was kept largely secretive. The lack of social medias also rendered public coverage of the torture sparse. However the word did begin to leak out, the nationalists in Algeria were quick to try and spread the information and eventually the French Public also learned of the torture.

However even after the French Public learned it wasn't enough to deter the French Troops. The outcries to stop the practice, the condemnation that they were acting like Nazi Germany, fell largely on deaf ears. The French Troops remained unswayed.