Deuxième Bureau The Deuxième Bureau de l ' État - major général ( ) was France ' s external military intelligence agency from 1871 to 1940 . It was dissolved together with the Third Republic upon the armistice with Germany . However the term " Deuxième Bureau " , like " MI5 " or " SMERSH " , outlived the original organization as a general label for the country ' s intelligence service . French military intelligence was composed of two separate bureaus prior to World War II . The Premier Bureau was charged with informing the high command about the state of French , allied , and friendly troops , while the Deuxième Bureau developed intelligence concerning enemy troops . The Deuxième Bureau was celebrated for its cryptanalytical work , but criticized for its involvement in the Dreyfus Affair and its consistent overestimation of German military formations prior to World War II . Its final director was Colonel Louis Rivet . History of the Deuxième Bureau . 19th Century . On June 8 , 1871 , the French Ministry of War authorized the creation of a service charged with performing " research on enemy plans and operations . " In 1872 the Ministry authorized the creation of a military counter - espionage service . In 1876 a " Statistiques et de reconnaissances militaires " ( " Military Statistics and Recognition " ) section was added to the Deuxième Bureau . In 1886 a law was passed penalizing espionage activity ( another would be passed in 1934 ) . In October 1894 the Dreyfus Affair occurred and proved so politically divisive that , in May 1899 , the government shifted responsibility for counter - espionage to the Ministry of the Interior . A small intelligence section remained within the General Staff , but the Service de surveillance du territoire ( " Territorial Surveillance Service " , SST ) , an agency of the Sûreté générale , became responsible for the pursuit of foreign spies on French soil . Counter - espionage was to be handled by special Sûreté police chiefs . The Deuxième Bureau ' s statistical section remained in operation until September 1 , 1899 , when it was disbanded . 1900s - 1920 . In 1906 Georges Clemenceau became Président du Conseil . With complete control of Interior Ministry funding , he created special counter - espionage units , the " brigades du Tigre " , a reference to Clemenceau ' s nickname . Commanded by police commissioner Célestin Hennion , the mobile brigades were to handle special operations of the judicial police related to counter - espionage . In February 1907 the 2ème Bureau was reactivated and was reassigned some of the contre - espionnage responsibilities it had had prior to the Dreyfus affair . Commanded by General Charles - Joseph Dupont , the 2ème Bureau worked with the Interior Ministry , and especially Commissioner Hennion ' s mobile counter - espionage brigades , which worked closely with France ' s border patrol s . In August 1911 the oversight of counter - espionage activities was assigned to the administration of the judiciary police that supervised the mobile brigades . In 1913 the government officially assigned counter - espionage operations on foreign soil to the Ministry of War , with the Ministry of the Interior being responsible for border security and prosecution . In May 1915 the " Section de Centralisation du Renseignement " ( " Central Intelligence Section " , SCR ) was created and assigned to Commandant Ladoux . It was attached to the 2ème Bureau , which also administered the operations of the Bureaux centraux de renseignement ( BCR ) . Altogether the organization was known as the 5ème Bureau . The SCR was attached to the " Section de renseignements " ( " Intelligence Section " , SR ) in April 1917 . In February 1917 the Président du Conseil put a commissioner of the Sûreté Nationale in charge of the criminal police , general intelligence , and counter - espionage . His command included a filing and archiving section , a section devoted to propaganda ( " propagande révolutionnaire " , PR ) and the SR and SCR . The SR provided a clearinghouse for centralized intelligence - gathering while the SCR was a small team of specialized counter - intelligence officers reporting to the Ministry of War , while a team of police officers were in charge of the arrest of suspects and judicial enquiries . 1930s . In April 1934 the Direction Générale de la Sûreté Générale was changed to the Direction Générale de la Sûreté nationale , with a post of Controller - General in command of Counter - Intelligence . In March 1935 the position was given authority over the territorial police , the police de l ’ Air , the TSF , and the police carrier - pigeon service . In June 1936 Colonel Louis Rivet succeeded Colonel Roux as head of the intelligence service and a new organization the Service de centralisation des renseignements ( " Central Intelligence Service " , CE ) . The CE , headquartered at 2 bis avenue de Tourville , Paris , was run by Commandant Guy Schlesser . In March 1937 the government decreed that territorial surveillance was the responsibility of the police alone , and was to be executed by strictly legal means . A new organization , the Bureau central de Renseignements ( " Central Intelligence Bureau " , BCR ) was established the same month and a special section devoted to " preventative defence " was created within the SCR . In July 1939 , at the prompting of military intelligence , a counter - intelligence charter was established and the National Council amended the penal code ( article 75 and following ) to integrate all 1810 , 1886 , and 1934 counter - intelligence laws . 20th century operations and agents . The Deuxième Bureau developed a reputation as Europe ' s top cryptoanalytical service in the early 20th century . It scored a notable success at the outbreak of World War I when it cracked the German ' s diplomatic cryptographic system . The French cryptoanalysts were able to decipher the lengthy telegram containing the German declaration of war before the German Ambassador in Paris could decipher it . In June 1918 Captain Georges Painvin , a DB cryptoanalyst , was able to crack part of the Germans ' ADFGVX cipher . These intercepts allowed an effective response to the movements of the German Army ' s 15 division - strong advances under Ludendorff at Montdidier and Compiègne , about 50 miles north of Paris . Prior to World War II , a Deuxième Bureau agent codenamed ' Rex ' made contact with Hans - Thilo Schmidt , a German cipher clerk , in the Grand Hotel of the Belgian town of Verviers . Schmidt , who worked at Defence Ministry Cipher Office in Berlin , sold the French the manuals explaining how to operate the top secret Enigma cipher machine being used by the German Army . Schmidt ultimately provided all the information necessary to crack the complex ciphers , which would play a key role in the Allied victory . In September 1939 , when France declared war on Germany in response to Germany ' s invasion of Poland , Josephine Baker was recruited by the Bureau and provided them with information as an " honorable correspondent . " Raymond Arthur Schuhl , a French propagandist who had served in the 6th Section of the Deuxieme Bureau until the fall of France , became the OSS Chief of Morale Operations in Switzerland and was its principal forger through the war . Schuhl operated for the OSS under the cover name Robert Salembier ( code name " Mutt " ) . He oversaw a prolific print shop in Geneva that produced millions of white and black pamphlets , leaflets , cards , postage stamps , and other forms of printed propaganda . World War II reorganization . Following the defeat of France in 1940 , the Vichy France regime ' s intelligence service was organized within the " Centre d ’ information gouvernemental " ( CIG ) , under the direction of Admiral François Darlan . Under the command of Colonel Louis Rivet , head of the Deuxième Bureau since 1936 , they set up the " Bureau des Menées Antinationales " ( BMA , the " Bureau of Anti - national Activities " ) , officially an organization opposing communist activities and resistance efforts and accepted by the Germans under the terms of the armistice . Meanwhile on July 1 , 1940 , the Free French government - in - exile in London created its own intelligence service . Under the leadership of General Charles de Gaulle , Major André Dewavrin was assigned to command the organization . Initially known as the " Service de Renseignements ( SR ) " , the agency changed its name to " Bureau Central de Renseignements et d ’ Action Militaire ( BCRAM ) " in April 1941 , and again in January 1942 to " Bureau Central de Renseignements et d ’ Action " ( BCRA ) the name by which it was best known . At the end of the war , in 1945 , this became the modern French counter - espionage service , the " Service de documentation extérieure et de contre - espionnage " ( SDECE , " Foreign Documentation and Counter - Espionage Service " ) .