GAULLE Charles de Copy of a L.A.S., 22 October 1939, to Paul Reynaud; 6 pages in-4 on the handwritten letterhead of the Tank Command of an Army Sector 100. Information about the army. "You can sign up for your service, change your service (from train to tank), be assigned to an army formation and be given a job of your rank, all by simple decision of the Minister of War (except for the formality of signing up, which is technically carried out at a recruitment office). The posting I would recommend to you would be as follows: Supernumerary Captain in the 1st Battle Tank Battalion. In wartime, there are no more tank regiments. It's the battalions that form the corps. The 1st battalion is one of those under my command. It would be very easy for me, without any formalities, to second you to the headquarters of the tank command of the 5th Army. This army (General Bourret, calm and understanding) is currently the most important. Its front stretches from the Sarre at Sarreguemines to south of Strasbourg. The command post (where I myself am most often) is Wangenbourg, south of Saverne. Here you will find all the practical and theoretical information you could wish for on the subject of tanks, as on other military subjects. I would now like to move on to a different order of ideas, although no doubt related to the previous one, and venture to give you my opinion on the conduct of this war. Our military system has been built exclusively for defence. If the enemy attacks us tomorrow, I am convinced that we will stand up to him. But if he does not attack, we will be almost totally powerless. In my opinion, the enemy will not attack us for a long time. It is in his interest to let our mobilised and passive army "cook in its own juice", while acting elsewhere in the meantime. Then, when he judges us to be weary, disorientated and dissatisfied with our own inertia, he will finally take the offensive against us, using completely different moral and material cards than those at his disposal today: Of course, before doing so, he will have worked hard to disgust us with the British by referring to the fact that ten Frenchmen are at the front for one Briton, and by having his agents repeat that he has no grievance against France. At the same time, he sought to disgust the British by concentrating his air, naval and imperial destruction effort against them. In my humble opinion, there is nothing more urgent or necessary than to galvanise the French people instead of lulling them into absurd illusions of defensive security. We must, as soon as possible, put ourselves in a position to wage an "active" war by equipping ourselves with the only means that are worthwhile for this: aviation, ultra-powerful tanks organised into large battleship units. But who is going to be responsible for this huge renovation effort? Perhaps you yourself will provide the answer. Bibliography: L. N. C., vol. 1, p. 898-900.