The least imposing of the quartet, Zeller, was an irascible sixty-three-year-old Alsatian (described by one writer as perpetually bearing "the ruffled look of an angry hen") who had huffily resigned from the army twice in the space of four years. Finally retired as Chief-of-Staff to the Ground Forces, he was regarded as an expert on logistics, but the report he now gave Challe was unexpectedly depressing: there was only three weeks' stock of medical supplies, milk and olive oil, while the vaults of the Banque de France were found to contain no more than twelve million dollars and less than a million dollars in gold and foreign currency. Zeller now reckoned that an Algeria boycotted by France could last little more than a fortnight — a considerable reduction on the three months bandied around before the generals left France — added to which, none of the potential foreign "allies" looked like coming forward with any kind of material aid.

DEFINE: Zeller's figure sharply revises the earlier three-month estimate, framing the (mis)calculations behind the generals' planning.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 1374