Algerian nationalists jumped to exploit France's internal crisis. In a show of impudent strength, they staged a coordinated attack on Sidi-bel-Abbes, the storied home of the Foreign Legion itself.
A passing cyclist tossed a grenade into the Restaurant de 1'Avenir; another cyclist threw a grenade into a crowd of shoppers a few blocks away. At the Alberti Bar, a khaki-clad man stepped from a black car, slipped a leather-strapped machine gun from his shoulder, and me thodically began pumping bullets into the customers. On Avenue Kleber, an elegantly dressed man unlimbered a...