Joseph "Papa" Joffre (12 January 1852-3 January 1931) was a Marshal of France who served as Generalissimo of the French Army from 1914 to 1916 during World War I. Joffre was known for leading several costly offensives against the Imperial German Army during the early years of the war, and he was replaced by Robert Nivelle after the Battle of Verdun in 1916.
Biography[]
A career officer in the engineers, Joseph Joffre was chosen as French chief of general staff in 1911. He believed in the virtue of the offensive, adopting Plan XVII, which, in the event of war, committed France "to advance with all forces united to attack the German armies".
Applied in August 1914, the French suffered catastrophic casualties against German defenses in Alsace and Lorraine (the battle of the Frontiers), while the bulk of German forces marched into France through Belgium. Joffre kept a cool head, redeployed his armies, and counterattacked at the Marne. The German armies were forced into retreat and France was saved.
As commander-in-chief, Joffre ruled the "zone of the armies" in France like a dictator, still certain that élan (attacking spirit) would triumph over defensive firepower. In the Champagne and Artois offensives of 1915, his theory failed at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives. Joffre lost his command in December 1916 after Verdun.