Around the town hall of suburban Saint-Denis swirled a crowd of clamorous Parisian mothers one day last week. Voices cracking, beet-faced with anger, recklessly hoisting their hungry, squalling children aloft, the rioters screamed for milk. In suburban Brunoy and Suresnes more mobs gathered. Excitement mounted. Rocks flew.
German occupation authorities promptly announced that potato distribution in Paris would be stopped for 40 days as punishment. Worried French politicos passed off the incident as just another outbreak from the tempestuous "Red Ring" of Paris, claimed to have stopped the trouble without police help....