THE choice of All Saints’ Day for launching the revolt was by no means fortuitous. Striking on a night when the staunchly Catholic pieds noirs were celebrating so important a festival would, it was argued, find police vigilance at its minimum; while the choice of such a date would carry with it the maximum propaganda impact. For a people as fond of symbolism as the Algerians, and with memories of Sétif still etched in their minds, the fact that All Saints commemorated the persecution of the early Christian martyrs was also not without significance.

XREF: Strategic timing of attacks—choosing moments of low vigilance and high symbolic resonance—connects to other guerrilla and insurgency tactics, like the Tet Offensive during Tết.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 253