General Robert Nivelle
Robert Nivelle promised to win the war in forty-eight hours and produced mutinies across the French army. Born in Tulle in 1856 to a French father and an English mother, he was an artillery officer who spent his career in colonial service in Algeria, Tunisia, China and Indochina, and was a colonel commanding a regiment when the war began. He rose extremely fast — regiment, brigade, division, corps within two years — on a reputation for the creeping barrage, in which artillery fire advances just ahead of the infantry on a timetable rather than lifting to the rear before the attack. He commanded the Second Army at Verdun and, under Pétain's overall direction, conducted the recapture of Fort Douaumont and Fort Vaux in the autumn of 1916 with concentrated artillery on narrow fronts. Those limited successes got him the command in chief in December 1916 over more senior men, partly because he was articulate, spoke fluent English, and impressed politicians in a way Joffre had ceased to. He then proposed to apply the same method on a strategic scale: an overwhelming bombardment and a mass attack on the Chemin des Dames that would break the German line entirely within two days. He discussed it so freely that the plan was known to the enemy, who had also withdrawn to the prepared Hindenburg Line and reinforced the sector. The offensive began on 16 April 1917 into intact defences on a ridge. Casualties ran to some 187,000 in weeks. Mutinies broke out in over half the divisions. He was dismissed in May and sent to North Africa.
- Lived: 1856 CE – 1924 CE
- Nationality: French
- Roles: general, commander_in_chief
