Riots break out in Algeria after Charles de Gaulle returns to power in France, and after De Gaulle dismissed from command the French paratrooper General Jacques Émile Massu for his opposition to DeGaulle's self determination plan for Muslim North Africa. French soldiers with rifles patrol at their posts and keep a vigil in Algiers during the crisis. Next scene is a flashback to May 1958: A crowd of supporters is seen around General Jacques Massu. A group of angry protestors is seen amassing, scaling a building and using a truck to break through fences onto the grounds of an official building. These scenes, the narrator indicates, are from May 5, 1958, during the May 1958 crisis, also called the Algiers putsch or the Coup of 13 May, when paratroopers under General Massu and civilians together succeeded in a coup and establishment of a "Committee of Public Safety". The narrator indicates that thus far in the 1960 crisis, the Army has remained loyal.
Scenes of oil exploration and production operation by Compagnie Française des Pétroles in the Hassi Messaoud oil field at edge of Sahara Desert in Algeria. Drilling operation in desert. drill turning in hole. Derrick in background with dromedary camels standing by sand dunes and being watered from a well by their Algerian Berber owner. Two men pile stones to make a marker in the desert. A 1958 British land rover vehicle driving across the desert. View of drilling derrick. Sections of pipe on the ground. Oil being pumped from a producing well into pipeline. French oil drilling worker empties bag of Boue forage (drilling mud) into hole. French worker, with hose, washes down base areas of drilling rig.Oil storage tanks connected by pipes. Local Algerian Berber workmen lift and carry bags of forage. Footprints in sand. Network of piping next to drill rig.
French soldiers patrol grain fields in the Meskiana Commune, Algeria. A group of farmers operate combine harvesting machines, to cut and bag the grain, under the protection of the French military. French tank, armored vehicle and observation aircraft seen. A French soldier operates controls on a combine harvester, watched by the farmer and several other soldiers riding on it. View of farmer in cab of the combine harvester. A soldier releases a sack of harvested grain marked: "S.A.P. Region de la Meskiana 1958."
French Premier Charles De Gaulle visits Algeria. Premier Charles De Gaulle visits Algeria to celebrate his victory in France's constitutional ballot. Large crowd gathered to support Gaulle's Fifth Republic. He addresses the crowd.
Charles de Gaulle visits Algeria. Moslem masses and Algerian Army gather to give support to French Premier Charles de Gaulle. De Gaulle returns to Paris. John Foster Dulles, U.S. Secretary of State, brings an invitation from U.S. President Eisenhower.
A Parachute training in Algeria. The French paratroopers on the edge of the aircraft for the fifth jump. They jump one by one. They drop for ten seconds and then pull the rib chords. Then the chute opens.