One of France’s most important military commanders of World War I.
By the outbreak of war in 1914, he was already nearing his 60s and was considering retirement, however he was made a general and given important command positions on the Western Front.
He did not believe that heavy artillery and machine-guns could be overcome by massed infantry charges.
In 1916 he was given command of French forces at Verdun; for a year his men held off the German offensive, though both sides suffered enormous casualties.
He was later discredited by his four-year presidency of the Nazi-aligned Vichy French republic, for which he spent the last years of his life in prison.
