The Great War - WW1
The Nivelle Offensive
After his succes at Verdun, General Nivelle succeeded Joffre as the French C-in-C, promising to end the war with one swift blow of 'violence, brutality and rapidity'. He found an eager ally in the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, who enlisted Nivelle in his own private war with the British C-in-C, Sir Douglas Haig.
The Allied plans for a joint offensive in the spring of 1917, with the British high command reluctantly placing itself under French orders, was dislocated by the German withdrawal to the heavily fortified Heindenburg Line, which began on the 16th of March. Brimming with self-confidence which bordered on the pathological, Nivelle ignored the changed circumstances. His strategy remained unmodified when the offensive began on the 16th of April on a 40-mile front east of Soissons.
Before the battle began, Nivelle had predicted 10'000 casualties as the price of victory. In the first four days the French Fifth and Sixth Armies suffered 120'000 casualties. The French displayed great courage in appalling weather conditions, but once again the German machine guns had survived the opening bombardment to mow down whole waves of infantry. The French gained four miles at the point of greatest effort, but no one believed that this was the decisive victory promised by the loquacious Nivelle. Nivelle's attempts to persist with his broken-backed offensive shattered the spirit of the French Army - already weakened by the sacrifices made at Verdun - and led to a widespread mutiny. Within a month, 54 divisions, half the French Army, could no longer be counted upon by its high command.