Your team’s Premium Access agreement is expiring soon. The Bombardment of Chefchaouen was an aerial bombardment of Chefchaouen, Morocco carried out in the middle of the Rif War by a rogue American squadron in the service of the French colonial empire on September 17, 1925. Lyautey knew that the Algerian tariqas had played an important role in Abdel Kader’s resistance to the French in the 1830s and 1840s and was determined to co-opt their support for his government. The French accordingly intervened on the side of Spain, employing up to 160,000 well-trained and -equipped troops from Metropolitan, Algerian, Senegalese and Foreign Legion units, as well as Moroccan regulars (tirailleurs) and auxiliaries (goumiers). As Lyautey had feared, the Rifis swept rapidly through his poorly defended northern agricultural lands. Note: The Epilog by Dale L. Walker states "The Escadrille was disbanded in November, 1925, after flying 470 missions and logging 653 air hours in observation and bombing operations.". In the aftermath of the war and the Paris Peace Conference, Lyautey resumed the conquest of Morocco—and faced stronger opposition than ever. These "Peninsular" troops were poorly supplied and prepared, few had marksmanship skills and proper battle training, and widespread corruption was reported amongst the officer corps, reducing sup… Even under the Lyautey system, however, a great deal of Morocco remained to be conquered. But the Rifi leader was actually referring to the mystical Muslim brotherhoods. “The greatest reason for my failure,” Abd el-Krim later reflected, “was religious fanaticism.” The claim is incongruous in light of Abd el-Krim’s own use of Islam to rally support for a holy war against the imperial powers. In September 1925, in the middle of the Rif War, a rogue squadron of American volunteer pilots, including veterans of World War I, bombarded civilians in Chaouen. "Moroccan Bomber: American Fighters in the Rif War, 1925" (by Colonel Paul Ayres Rockwell, ed. . During his thirteen-year tenure in Morocco, Marshal Hubert Lyautey (1854–1934) would prove to be one of the great innovators of imperial administration. Between the establishment of the protectorate in 1912 and the outbreak of World War I in 1914, French control stretched from Fez to Marrakesh, including the coastal cities of Rabat, Casablanca, and the new port of Kéni-tra, which was renamed Port Lyautey. The Spanish responded by mobilizing another campaign force to reconquer the Rif. ( Log Out /  The Rif War provoked grave concern in France. The Rif War was an armed conflict fought from 1920 to 1927 between the colonial power Spain (later joined by France) and the Berber tribes of the Rif mountainous region of Morocco. The Moroccan sultan, Moulay Abd al-Hafiz (r. 1907–1912), signed the Treaty of Fez in March 1912, preserving his family’s rule in Morocco but conceding most of his country’s sovereignty to France under a colonial arrangement known as a protectorate. The Rif was a poor, mountainous land that was heavily reliant on food imports from the fertile valleys of the French zone. France had to negotiate a treaty with Spain setting out their respective “rights” in Morocco, a process concluded in November 1912 with the signing of the Treaty of Madrid. “We tell you and your colleagues . Dale L. Walker; Aviation Quarterly, Volume 5, Number 2, 2nd Quarter 1979), Note: Thanks to TALIM Board member Dr. Majida Bargach of the University of Virginia, we have just been provided a rare copy of the now-defunct "Aviation Quarterly," with a lengthy selection from a manuscript by Col. Paul Rockwell, an American who fought three times in the service of France (WW I, Rif War, WW II).