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).

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 Second French Army, and in that role he held exercises that year which revealed that the Ardennes were impossible to defend and thsu exactly paralleled the German attack in May 1940. In December 1938, some months after the Munich Conference, Prételat reported that - in contrast to the Maginot Line - France's defensive fortifications on her north-east border were insufficient and, though in April 1939 he was ordered to draw up a plan to improve them, these plans had been under-implemented at the outbreak of war in September 1939.

1939-1940

Early in September 1939, only he and one other member of the War Council openly opposed war with Germany, though on 8 September he did have the French Second Army Group (now under his command) begin an underpowered offensive in the Saar against the German Siegfried Line, in order to demonstrate French support for Poland. He launched this when even he himself believed he had insufficient air cover for the operation and, when it became clear that Poland would fall, French chief of staff Maurice Gamelin called a halt to the offensive only 4 days after it had begun. On the Polish surrender, Prételat's troops pulled back behind the Maginot Line, in the north-eastern sector of the French northern front, and it was there that they were on the outbreak of the the Battle of France on 10 May 1940.

Undermanned, during the initial fighting in which it played no part, Prételat's 2nd Army Group initially continued to shelter behind the Maginot Line though, over two weeks, Prételat reinforced units directly facing the German offensive in the northwest with 20 of his 30 divisions. By 26 May, Prételat became aware that the 1st and 4th Army Groups on his west flank were exhausted and might allow that flank to be turned by the Germans. He thus asked permission to retreat, which was refused until 12 June. During his withdrawal he continued to offer resistance, but within the week he and the remanants of Second Group had been encircled. Thus it was left to Prételat to give the final French surrender on 22 June 1940, though many of his Group's troops only ceased fire many days after that. Embittered, Prételat then retired and played no part in the rest of the war.

ources

* [http://www.generals.dk/general/Pretelat/Andr%C3%A9-Gaston/France.html Generals.dk]
* [http://www.historyandtheheadlines.abc-clio.com/ContentPages/ContentPage.aspx?entryId=1145934&currentSection=1130224&productid=3 History and the Headlines]