The French Army Light Aviation ( (the army is officially called the 'Land Army' because the air force is officially called the 'Air Army')) is the Army aviation service of the French Army. ALAT was established on 22 November 1954 for observation, reconnaissance, assault and supply duties. History French military aviation became officially part of the French Army in 1912, alongside the four traditional branches of the French Army, the infantry, cavalry, artillery and engineers. As such it played important role in WWI in support of the army : observation, artillery guidance, bombing and strafing, etc. but it also proved the air to be a battleground in itself, prompting the detachment of French Air Force from the army in 1934. After WWII, it was felt that, just like the navy, the army needed its own air branch, distinct from the air force, which led to ALAT's creation in 1954. Since it has participated in almost all French military engagements and humanitarian aid deployments: the French Indochina War, the Algerian War, the Persian Gulf War of 1990–91, the Lebanese conflict, the war in Chad, the independence of Djibouti, the War in Somalia, operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Kosovo War, the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, the Opération Licorne in Cote d'Ivoire, the humanitarian response to the December 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, the War in Afghanistan, 2011 military intervention in Libya. The use of armed helicopters coupled with helicopter transport during the Algerian War which could drop troops into enemy territory gave birth to today's tactics of airmobile warfare. The machines of the nascent ALAT carried out a considerable number of missions against Algerian insurgents between 1955, when the Groupe d’Hélicoptères No.2 (GH 2) was created, and 1962 when the French empire in Algeria finally came to an end. GH 2 was based at Sétif – Aïn Arnat in the east of the country, and it was equipped primarily with machines to undertake transport missions, though the Vertol H-21C, nicknamed the Banane volante (“Flying Banana”) because of its silhouette, would soon join the unit owing to concerns about the lack of machines which could both defend themselves and carry out offensive missions against the insurgents. Acquiring these machines lay in the hands of the licensee Piasecki given France's urgent need to have them on account of the circumstances. Usually, the H-21 could carry up to 18 troops, yet local operating (as