Perhaps the most humiliating blow to his prestige as an air force general was that — like the "god Hercules" deserting Mark Antony before Alexandria — Nicot and the air force had started defecting from the rebel cause. At the beginning of the putsch there had been forty-five big Noratlases and various other transports capable of ferrying two regiments, but one by one these now slipped off to France. Mystère fighters were sent up to patrol the Rhône valley, with orders to force down any rebel aircraft attempting to head for Paris. By Tuesday the 25th Algeria was virtually denuded of troop-carrying aircraft, even down to the hospital transports.

XREF: Connects to military putsch history and how air superiority determines insurgency viability.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 1388