There was, inevitably, a mass covering-up within the army. As "Major Marcus" in Servan-Schreiber's Lieutenant en Algérie remarks: "The captains and the mayors lie to the generals and the prefects…when a saloperie is committed in my regiment by some of my men on an operation, do you think I ever hear about it? No. It's covered up 'between pals'."

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 598