Algiers is presented as a wartime airfield stop rather than as the setting for an extended episode. The landing at Maison-Blanche marks the successful end of a dangerous crossing and the beginning of a journey whose next stage is abruptly obstructed by the acceptance of the armistice and orders grounding aircraft.

Setting and Role

The memoir identifies Algiers through the Maison-Blanche airfield. Its importance is chiefly logistical and narrative: it is the point at which the narrator and Warrant Officer Delavault reach North Africa after crossing the sea, and a temporary stage on their way to Meknes. The account does not develop scenes of the city beyond this landing.

The Flight to Maison-Blanche

The arrival follows a journey undertaken despite a serious fuel risk. The aircraft’s Petrel engines, without supplementary tanks, might have stopped some forty minutes short of the African coast, leaving the crew to ditch. They set off anyway. The narrator recalls believing that his mother’s love protected him, while Delavault accepted the uncertainty of the crossing and brought two tires to use as lifebuoys if necessary. With the wind in their favor, they landed at Maison-Blanche with a comfortable margin of just ten minutes’ fuel.

From Arrival to Interruption

The crew proceeded to Meknes the next morning, where the flying school had temporarily established its headquarters. There they learned that the North African authorities had accepted the armistice and that aircraft were being grounded after other crews had tried to reach Gibraltar. In this sequence, Algiers is a brief success between a hazardous crossing and a new barrier: the landing brings the aircraft to North Africa, but does not secure the crew’s freedom to continue flying.