Bureau Central de Renseignements et d ' Action The Bureau Central de Renseignements et d ' Action ( English : Central Bureau of Intelligence and Operations ) , commonly referred as the BCRA was the World War II - era forerunner of the SDECE , the French intelligence service . The BCRA was created by the Free French chief - of - staff in 1940 , and it was commanded by Major André Dewavrin , who had taken the " nom de guerre " , " Colonel Passy " . 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 Vichy France regime ' s intelligence service was organized within the Centre d ’ information gouvernemental ( " Center for Government Information " , CIG ) , under the direction of Admiral François Darlan . According to Colonel Louis Rivet , head of the Deuxième Bureau since 1936 , shortly following the defeat of France in June 1940 , he , Captain Paul Paillole , and various members of the counter - intelligence service met at the Seminary of Bon - Encontre near Agen . With the assistance of General Maxime Weygand , they planned to revive French counter - intelligence against German domination . Colonel Rivet ' s memoirs remain controversial , but according to his account the official Bureau des Menées Antinationales ( " Bureau of Anti - national Activities " , BMA ) , officially an organization opposing communist activities and resistance efforts and accepted by the Germans under the terms of the armistice , was in reality a cover for the pursuit of collaborators with the Germans . The main vehicle for such operations was " L ’ entreprise des Travaux Ruraux " ( The Rural Work Enterprise ) , supposedly an agricultural engineering program , which performed clandestine counter - espionage under the command of Captain Paillole . In August 1942 , the BMA was dissolved and recreated clandestinely as the Military Security Service by Pierre Laval and Admiral Darlan , who needed such an organisation to try to preserve Vichy French sovereignty . Paillole was given control of this new organization . Meanwhile on July 1 , 1940 , the Free French government - in - exile in London created its own intelligence service . General Charles de Gaulle assigned Major Dewavrin to command the organization . Initially known as the " Service de Renseignements ( SR ) " , the agency would change its name to " Bureau central de renseignements et d ’ action militaire ( BCRAM ) " on 15 April 1941 , and again change to " Bureau central de renseignements et d ’ action ( BCRA ) " on 17 January 1942 . Initially , it consisted of a single section : Subsequently , other sections were added : 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 " Direction générale des services spéciaux " ( DGSS , " General Directorate for Special Services " ) . 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 .