page_title: Grand Quartier Général (1939–1940)
section_title: Organisation
hierarchical_section_title: Grand Quartier Général (1939–1940) / Organisation
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Le général Maurice Gamelin en 1936.Čeština: Francouzský generál Maurice Gamelin v roce 1936.
context_page_description: The Grand Quartier Général was the general headquarters of the French Army during the Second World War. Originally established in 1911, GQG was re-established on the outbreak of war in 1939, the original GQG had functioned from 1914 to 1919 during the First World War. In the inter-war years, the plans for activation of GQG changed considerably, with the formation switching from an offensive-oriented position near the German border at Metz in the 1920s gradually westwards. By 1938 its planned base was at the Château de Vincennes in the suburbs of Paris, from where it was expected to conduct a defensive war.
  Activated in 1939 upon the mobilisation of the French Army, GQG struggled with an awkward distribution of staff between Vincennes and a number of more distant towns. The French chief of staff, General Maurice Gamelin, found this situation unworkable and instituted reforms in January 1940. The changes upset the North-East army commander General Alphonse Joseph Georges and were ill-received by the British army.
  GQG responded slowly to the German attack into France when it eventually came in early May 1940.
context_section_description: The GQG was established in 1911 as the wartime command structure of the French Army, the counterpart of the peacetime Conseil Supérieur de la Guerre (CSG).  The GQG was activated upon the general mobilisation of the army and remained active until stood down by the French parliament.  GQG had been active during the First World War from mobilisation on 2 August 1914 until it was stood down on 20 October 1919.
  In the inter-war years there was much debate over how the French high command should be organised, including the role and location of GQG.  In the years following the deactivation of the First World War's GQG it was planned that any new GQG would have control of only  the metropolitan theatre of operations.  The structure was to consist of a commander-in-chief, a major-général and three aide-majors.  There were to be four bureaus with different areas of responsibility, much like the GQG of the First World War.  The First Bureau dealt with organisation, the Second Bureau with information, the Third Bureau with military operations and the Fourth Bureau with logistics.  There would also have been a Bureau of Personnel, a Courier Section, a group of Inspector-Generals and a group composed of units and services particular to GQG.  A reorganisation proposal was submitted to Marshal Philippe Pétain (Vice-Chairman of the CSG) in 1928, which sought to reduce the sluggishness and inefficiency within the unit.  In 1933 another proposed amendment sought to clarify the commander-in-chiefs powers.  It was proposed that he would continue to have authority over just the metropolitan theatre but would act as an advisor to all other theatres and as a coordinator with any allied forces.  However no reforms were implemented.
  The GQG was finally reorganised upon the appointment of General Maurice Gamelin as Chief of the General Staff for National Defence and General Alphonse Joseph Georges as head of the north-east army in 1938.  On 28 September 1938 the new responsibilities of GQG were set out in a memorandum. The structure changes only slightly, introducing another aide-major and making changes to the role of the inspector-generals.  The function of the GQG was, however, radically altered.  The new GQG is expected to act both as commander of the metropolitan theatre (also responsible for the north-east army), as before, and as overall commander of all French ground forces.  Gamelin, as commander-in-chief, decided to form his own staff, separate from the GQG organisation, and to establish a separate command post away from GQG.  This structure was the form brought into operation as the wartime GQG in 1939.
caption: Maurice Gamelin, commander-in-chief of GQG 1939-40
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