As dawn broke over the small Algerian fishing port of Collo, the grim shape of a French cruiser materialized out of the darkness. Even as French children swarmed down to the beach to cheer, Georges Leygues' 8-in. guns swung shoreward and thundered salvo after salvo into the hills behind the town. Minutes later, French planes strafed the target area. Marines swarmed ashore from the cruiser, trucks carrying Senegalese troops roared up the road from Philippeville and swung up into the hills. It was the first combined air-sea-ground operation of the French in Algeria, aimed at the concentration of fellagha...
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