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With perfect timing, gangs of Algerian fellaghas (rebel bandits) raided French police stations and stormed the railroad station on the outskirts of Constantine (pop. 119,000). Fourteen Frenchmen standing at a bar were blown to bits by a bomb. The fellaghas called themselves "The Army of Liberation"; they were joined by urban terrorists known as "Death Battalions." The rebels swept through dozens of French villages, burning, looting and killing. Scores of French civilians were knifed or torn to pieces before the troops swung into action.
Pitched battles broke out in half a dozen Algerian towns. It was impossible to count all the casualties, but reliable estimates ranged as high as 560 dead (460 of them rebels) and possibly thousands injured.
All told, La Date Fatidique claimed the lives of some 650 Arabs and 200 Frenchmen. French North Africa was in flames, and at week's end there was still no knowing how far the flames would spread, or how they would be put out.