Impeccable white shirt and pleated pants, Gilles Buscia welcomes us into his living room with a breathtaking view of the Maures massif. For almost three decades, the 86-year-old man has been living an anonymous retirement in a small village in the Var. Although he admits to having significant health problems, his memory is intact. Just like his words, fierce, and the hatred of the one he continues to call the “gravedigger of France”who died more than half a century ago in Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises.
“I am one of the masterminds of the assassination attempt on Charles de Gaulle on August 15, 1964, at Mont Faron.”, he asks, abruptly. That day, a booby-trapped jar was placed in the path of the President of the Republic, on an official visit to Toulon to inaugurate the Provence landing memorial. But ultimately there was no deadly explosion; the capital of Var being added to the list of failed attacks against the man of June 18.
Wanted by all police forces in France
In this troubled time, Gilles Buscia, 26, is the head of an OAS commando in mainland France. Like so many others, disgusted by the French government’s withdrawal from Algeria, this paratrooper from the elite units joined the Organisation de l’Armée secrète. The clandestine group multiplies terrorist operations, including after the signing of the Evian Accords in 1962, which led to the end of the war and the independence of the now ex-colony. Gilles Buscia, a deserter, is then hunted by the police. He has just shot a retired Air Force commander in the head.
“In 1963, I was arrested with three comrades and sentenced to death for a number of actions, including the elimination of secret agents, he says without the slightest modesty, his face impassive. But on September 4, I managed to escape from Fresnes prison. I then went to Italy where I was able to meet Jean-Jacques Susini.”
Having taken refuge in the peninsula, the co-founder of the OAS has also become its leader since the arrest of Raoul Salan. Despite the weakening of the movement, this intellectual has not abandoned the idea of assassinating General de Gaulle. The President of the Republic, enemy number 1 of the partisans of French Algeria for having “betrayed” the cause, is a miracle survivor of several assassination plans, including that of Petit-Clamart. This time, Jean-Jacques Susini, who knows he can count on the determination and “steel mind” by Gilles Buscia, does not want to leave anything to chance.
After having given up at the last moment on trapping the tribune of honor during the July 14 parade in Paris, a new method of operation was adopted. The assassination is this time scheduled at the foot of the Beaumont Tower, in Toulon, where the twenty years of the landing of Provence are to be celebrated. Imprinted with a “cold rage”Gilles Buscia forms his team.
Twenty kilos of cheddite and three loaves of TNT
“I went to Faron three times to scout,” continues the Varois, then discreetly accommodated on the edge of the harbor with comrades of the OAS. “We didn’t know if de Gaulle was going to arrive by helicopter or by road. Then we identified this large terracotta pot, along the staircase that leads to the memorial. We were certain that he was going to pass by. explosives were provided to me One night, with all lights out and accompanied by two accomplices, I placed the charge in the jar.”
Twenty kilos of cheddite and three loaves of TNT are placed at the bottom of the container on July 28. Enough to make a maximum number of victims. The plant – “a witch’s claw” – was carefully repotted. Only the transmitter antenna protrudes a few centimeters. At the right moment, two accomplices with fake press cards will have the mission of getting as close as possible to the infernal machine to trigger it. Gilles Buscia returns to Italy.
A small explosion… thirteen days later
On D-Day, at 3:45 p.m., General de Gaulle, surrounded by Pompidou, Malraux and eight other ministers, stopped for thirty seconds in front of the jar after getting out of his vehicle. From Rome, Jean-Jacques Susini and Gilles Buscia had their ears glued to the radio so as not to miss anything of the fatal moment. Broadcast live, the visit of the President of the Republic to Toulon was marked by solemnity and exaltation of the greatness of France. But nothing happened… and the general returned to Paris.
The weirdest is yet to come. On August 28, 1964, thirteen days later, a white flame finally erupted from the jar, which shattered before the stunned eyes of the memorial guardian. The explosion was minimal and caused no injuries. Disturbing detail: a few seconds earlier, a black DS was seen leaving the Toulon summit in a hurry.
De Gaulle saved by the secret services?
“We never knew what happened.recognizes our interlocutor. Those who were to set off the bomb on August 15 were effectively prevented from approaching by the CRS. But even without that, there would not have been an explosion: after the jar incident, the police found three kilos of TNT but no trace of the cheddite. I am convinced that our plan had been foiled long before.”
Officially, a diligent gardener watered the terracotta container just before General de Gaulle passed by, drowning the firing device! A funny hypothesis, but above all “ridicule”according to Gilles Buscia, who has his own idea on the matter. “In the photos of the ceremony published in Paris-Match, we see that there is no longer the witch’s claw in the jar. It looks like a secret service stunt.”
His theory? The famous SDECE, the French counter-espionage body, got wind of the attack ordered by Jean-Jacques Susini – “there was betrayal, it’s obvious” – which he managed to thwart at the last moment. Wishing all the same to exploit the image of a general resisting the rebels, the government itself blew up the jar two weeks later.
For the young member of the OAS, considered an extremely dangerous activist by the authorities, the run will last eight more months. His arrest in April 1965 in Marseille sealed the end of his headlong flight but also that of the organization’s murderous operations. Tried in this exceptional case with fourteen other defendants, Gilles Buscia will be sentenced to life imprisonment and imprisoned on the Île de Ré… only three years. In 1968, an amnesty law earned him a pardon. The following years will be written between Africa and the south of France, where this specialist in weapons handling sells his skills “in the field of security”.
“My only regret is that it didn’t work out.”
Exactly sixty years after the Mont Faron plot, in the twilight of his life, the octogenarian shows no remorse. “My only regret is that it didn’t work outhe sweeps away, chilling. Our cause was the right one. The proof: we are still paying today the consequences of the policy led by this impostor de Gaulle.” As for the civilian victims that the attack could have caused, here too, Gilles Buscia stands firm. “The crowd was at a good distance. It was not terrorism but an act of war. And then let’s talk about the innocent people that de Gaulle had killed in Algeria!”
The Corsican who once dreamed of being a teacher repeats the words until he is thirsty “vengeance” or “treason”. His gaze darkens at the mention of the most illustrious president of the Ve Republic, to whom he even dedicated a book written in the ink of his venom. If he denies it, Gilles Buscia still seems consumed by an inner fire. “For forty years now I have had no illusions about this country, which is sinking deeper into the abyss every day. I have drawn a line under France. But I do not deny anything I have said, thought or done.”
