Mohamed Bel Hadj

Mohamed Bel Hadj (1904 – 10 January 1945) was an Algerian-French army lieutenant and French resister. He distinguished himself by switching sides from Vichy to Free French forces after becoming injured in Lebanon and saving his unit commander during fighting in Libya. He was mortally wounded by a landmine while leading an operation in eastern France.

Biography He was presumed to have been born in Saïda, Algeria in 1904 [other sources say 1905] which was then a French-controlled colony. He volunteered to join the French army in Saïda in August 1923 and was incorporated as a 2nd-class rifleman in the 10e régiment de tirailleurs algériens (10e RTA) [10th Algerian Rifle Regiment] before joining the 6e RTA. He served in Morocco for four years. Assigned to the Levant in September 1928, he served there for eleven years with the 6e RTA. He was successively promoted to corporal in 1930, sergeant in 1933 and then staff sergeant in 1937.

Bel Hadj was transferred again in November 1940 to the 10e RTA following the dissolution of the 6e RTA and took part in what was now the Vichy army campaign in Syria and Lebanon against the British, Australian Indian and Gaullist forces. He was wounded in the leg by shrapnel on 19 June 1941 in the Battle of Merdjayoun. On August 6, 1941, he chose to desert the Vichy-supporting Armée du Levant to join the Free French Forces.