Robert Nivelle

France state institutions 1856–1924 ○ Natural death

French commander-in-chief whose failed offensive of 1917 brought on the army mutinies and his dismissal

Born in Tulle, Corrèze, to a French father and an English Protestant mother, he became an artillery officer and served in the Boxer Rebellion. In May 1916 he succeeded Pétain in command of the Second Army at Verdun and led the counter-offensives, but was accused of wasting French lives. Made commander-in-chief on the Western Front in December 1916, he opened the Nivelle Offensive at the Chemin des Dames on 16 April 1917, promising a decisive breakthrough. Casualties reached 134,000 in ten days against the 10,000 he had predicted, yet he pressed on without breaking through. A mutiny spread through roughly half the French Army, and on 15 May he was replaced by Pétain. He was sent off to command in North Africa and died in 1924.