Former free-fighter André Dewavrin, aka "Colonel Passy", was tasked to reform the DGER; he fired more than 8,300 of the 10,000 full-time intelligence workers Soustelle had hired, and the agency was renamed SDECE ("Service de documentation extérieure et de contre-espionnage") on December 28, 1945. The SDECE also brought under one head a variety of separate agencies – some, such as the well-known "Deuxième Bureau", aka "2e Bureau", created by the military circa 1871–1873 in the wake of the birth of the French Third Republic. Another was the BRCA ("Bureau central de renseignements et d'action"), formed during WWII, from July 1940 to November 27, 1943, with André Dewavrin as its head.