André - Gaston Prételat André - Gaston Prételat ( 14 November 1874 , Wassy , Champagne , France – 6 December 1969 , Paris , France ) was a general in the French Army . Military career . 1910 - 1918 . His first post , from 1910 to 1912 , was as military attaché to Tangier . During the First World War he was the chief of staff of 70th Division ( 1915 ) and then of XXIII Corps ( 1916 ) , before becoming the commanding officer of the 159th Regiment and Deputy Chief of Staff to Gouraud ' s French Fourth Army ( 1917 ) , and finally Chief of Staff of the Fourth Army . After the Armistice , he became chief of staff of the Army of Alsace ( 1918 ) , the troops occupying the Alsace Lorraine ( annexed by France from Germany ) . Interwar Period 1918 - 1939 . During the inter - war years he returned to the French colonies , acting as chief of staff in the Levant from 1919 to 1923 , then as chief of staff to general Gouraud for 4 years from 1923 . He next held three posts as General Officer Commanding , first of First Division ( 1927 to 1930 ) , then of the Eleventh Military Region ( 1930 ) , and finally of the Paris Military Region ( aka the Second Military Region , from 1930 to 1934 ) . From 1934 to the outbreak of the Second World War he was Member Supreme of the 19 - strong War council . In 1938 he was commander - designate of the French Second Army , and in that role he held exercises that year which revealed that the Ardennes were impossible to defend ; although his prediction as to the time it would take Germany to breach defenses was off by only three hours of the time it actually took on May 1940 , he was accused of pessimism . He pointed out security weaknesses in the defensive forticiations of the north - east border of France in December 1938 and attempted to address these with improvements he planned in April 1939 , but efforts had scarcely been undertaken when the war began in September 1939 . World War 2 1939 - 1940 . Prételat openly opposed entering the war with Germany along with one other member of the War Council , but nevertheless did send the French Second Army Group on what he feared would be an underpowered offensive against the German Siegfried Line in the Saar on 8 September . The offensive was halted only 4 days after it had begun on order of French chief of staff Maurice Gamelin , and Prételat withdrew the Second Army Group to behind the Maginot Line , in the north - eastern sector of the French northern front , to where they would remain until the outbreak of the Battle of France on 10 May 1940 . At first , Prételat withheld his troops , which were inadequate in number to the task at hand , but by the second week Prételat had reinforced units directly facing the German offensive in the northwest with 20 of his 30 divisions . On 26 May , in fear that German forces would overwhelm exhausted groups to his west , Prételat sought and was refused permission to retreat . His troops remained in place until collapse was imminent , when , on 12 June , they were ordered to withdraw . They were shortly surrounded by German troops in spite of their resistance , continuing their efforts for a short time even after the French surrender of 22 June 1940 . It was Prételat ' s last engagement in the war .