Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action
The Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action (French:
History
The organization was preceded by the Deuxième Bureau, which had been the French external military intelligence agency since 1871.
Following the defeat of France in 1940, the
Meanwhile, on 1 July 1940, the
Initially, it consisted of a single section:
- Renseignement (R): commanded by Captain André Manuel (aka "Pallas"), which worked closely with British intelligence agency MI6.
Subsequently, other sections were added:
- Action militaire (A/M) (Military action): created 15 April 1941, commanded by Captain Raymond Lagier (aka "Bienvenüe") and Fred Scamaroni, working with the British Special Operations Executive.
- Contre-espionnage (CE) (Counterintelligence): created 16 December 1941, commanded by Roger Warin (aka Roger Wybot) and Stanislas Mangin, working with the British MI5.
- Évasion (E) (Escape): created February 1942, commanded by Lieutenant Mitchell, working with the British MI9.
- Politique (N/M for non militaire) (Non-military operations): August 1942, commanded by Jacques Bingen, Jean Pierre-Bloch, and Louis Vallon
Upon the reconciliation between General Henri Giraud and Charles de Gaulle in 1943, the French national liberation committee ordered the fusion of the BCRA and the clandestine intelligence services of Rivet into a new structure, the General Directorate for Special Services [fr] (DGSS, Direction générale des services spéciaux). Louis Rivet resigned in opposition to the new organization.
In 1944 the DGSS became the Direction générale des études et recherches (DGER, General Directorate for Study and Research), which became the Service de documentation extérieure et de contre-espionnage (SDECE, Foreign Documentation and Counter-Espionage Service) in 1945.