Called “Force C” and under the command of Michel Hacq, Director of the French Criminal Police and hero of the Resistance, it consisted of no less than 200 hand-picked police inspectors. These would be posted in quick rotation (to avoid corruption by the O.A.S.) so that none would spend more than two months in Algeria. “Force C” would work hand-in-hand with Bitterlin’s team, getting it out of scrapes, deploring its fiascos, but also benefiting from the intelligence provided. Both bodies would become bracketed in the public eye as barbouzes; the name that would stick henceforth where any “irregular” action against the O.A.S. was concerned.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 1499