In Oran a new army commander, an ex-trooper called General Katz, had assumed personal control of the battle. After the killing of his Deuxième Bureau chief, Katz installed himself in the prefecture, where the windows had been shot out, put his mattress on the floor to be out of the field of snipers' fire, and read Saint-Simon by night to distract himself from the incessant shooting and bombing outside.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 1605