back in the free zone, he took part in the creation of the United Movements of the Resistance (MUR) on 26 January 1943 in Miribel, in Ain. At the beginning of February 1943, , Kommandeur of the Sipo-SD in Vichy, decapitated the Secret Army of the R1 region. On 1 February in Lyon's Place du Pont, he arrested Billon, head of the AS in R1 (eleven departments), along with his deputy Pierre Lavergne. On 3 February, at 31 rue Basse-des-Rives in Saint-Étienne, during a secret meeting of the headquarters of the departmental AS, he also arrested the head of AS Loire, Lieutenant Vidiani, and his companions. On 10 February, in Le Puy-en-Velay, they continued to dismantle the AS in R1 with the arrest of the chief of AS in Haute-Loire Alfred Salvatelli and his companions at his home. After the 10 February arrest the Haute-Loire resistance joined region R6 (Auvergne). On 27 May 1943, these three arrests, orchestrated by Geissler, featured prominently at the beginning of the Ernst Kaltenbrunner's report addressed to Joachim von Ribbentrop, Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Reich. Delestraint then fought against the advice of Frenay (who had been provisionally delegated general of the Secret Army) to put the Army under the tutelage of the MUR. Frenay, on the one hand the No. 2 of the Secret Army and on the other a member of the Coordination Committee of the same army, then wished the recall of Delestraint and his own appointment as head of the Secret Army, which were rejected by the other members of the Coordinating Committee, Moulin, d'Astier and Levy. In London in February 1943 to meet Allied authorities, Delestraint was asked to make his troop the "nucleus of the future French army", estimated at 150,000 men. Unfortunately, Francois Morin-Forestier was arrested in March with Raymond Aubrac, Maurice Kriegel-Valrimont and Serge Ravanel of the MUR, and only released in May, thanks to the action of his former co-detainee Raymond Aubrac. His release did not allow his return to the staff: too exposed, he was ex-filtered to London. In April, Delestraint returned to Paris, arriving on 11 April. By the 4 June report, Moulin deplores the risks that Delestraint was taking, working alone when he would do better if assisted. On 9 June 1943 Delestraint, Gastaldo and their deputy Jean-Louis Théobald were arrested in Paris. On 21 June a staff meeting was held to