Editing Philippe Pétain (section)

==First World War==
{{more citations needed|section|date=July 2017}}<!--first two sub-sections have no references-->

===Beginning of war===
[[File:Philippe Pétain circa 1915.jpg|thumb|Pétain in 1915. [[Autochrome]] portrait by [[Jules Gervais-Courtellemont]]]]
Pétain led his brigade at the [[Battle of Guise]] (29 August 1914). The following day, he was promoted to [[brigade general]] to replace brigade general {{ill|Pierre Peslin|fr}}, who had taken his own life.<ref name="gendbrig"/> He was given command of the 6th Division in time for the [[First Battle of the Marne]]; little over a month later, in October 1914, he was promoted yet again and became XXXIII Corps commander. After leading his corps in the spring 1915 [[Second Battle of Artois|Artois Offensive]], in July 1915 he was given command of the [[Second Army (France)|Second Army]], which he led in the [[Second Battle of Champagne|Champagne Offensive]] that autumn. He acquired a reputation as one of the more successful commanders on the Western Front.

===Battle of Verdun===
{{main|Grand Quartier Général (1914–1919)}}
Pétain commanded the [[Second Army (France)|Second Army]] at the start of the [[Battle of Verdun]] in February 1916. During the battle, he was promoted to Commander of Army Group Centre, which contained a total of 52 divisions. Rather than holding down the same infantry divisions on the Verdun battlefield for months, akin to the German system, he rotated them out after only two weeks on the front lines. His decision to organise truck transport over the "[[Voie Sacrée]]" to bring a continuous stream of artillery, ammunition, and fresh troops into besieged Verdun also played a key role in grinding down the German onslaught to a final halt in July 1916. In effect, he applied the basic principle that was a mainstay of his teachings at the École de Guerre (War College) before World War I: "''le feu tue!''" or "firepower kills!"{{snd}}in this case meaning French field artillery, which fired over 15 million shells on the Germans during the first five months of the battle. Although Pétain did say ''"On les aura!"'' (an echoing of Joan of Arc, roughly: "We'll get them!"), the other famous quotation often attributed to him – ''"Ils ne passeront pas!"'' ("[[They shall not pass]]"!) – was actually uttered by [[Robert Nivelle]] who succeeded him in command of the [[Second Army (France)|Second Army]] at Verdun in May 1916.<!-- There are sources that say otherwise, other sources say that it is not clear who first used the term but that both used it, there is also a text by a military painter, Maurice Dubois, who says that when he was painting near the front Petain said it. --> At the very end of 1916, Nivelle was promoted over Pétain to replace [[Joseph Joffre]] as French [[Commander-in-Chief]].

===Mutiny===
{{main|1917 French Army mutinies}}
Because of his high prestige as a soldier's soldier, Pétain served briefly as Army [[Chief of Staff]] (from the end of April 1917). He then became [[Chief of the Defence Staff (France)|Commander-in-Chief]] of the entire French army, replacing [[General Nivelle]], whose [[Nivelle Offensive|Chemin des Dames offensive]] failed in April 1917 and thereby provoked widespread mutinies in the French Army. They involved, to various degrees, nearly half of the French infantry divisions stationed on the Western Front. Pétain restored morale by talking to the men, promising no more suicidal attacks, providing rest for exhausted units, home furloughs, and moderate discipline. He held 3400 [[courts martial]]; 554 mutineers were sentenced to death but over 90% had their sentences commuted.<ref>{{cite book|author=Nicola Barber|title=World War I: The Western Front|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y82WHKm2QBYC&pg=PA53|year=2003|publisher=Black Rabbit Books|page=53|isbn=978-1583402689}}</ref>  The mutinies were kept secret from the Germans and their full extent and intensity were not revealed until decades later. Gilbert and Bernard find multiple causes:

<blockquote>The immediate cause was the extreme optimism and subsequent disappointment at the [[Robert Nivelle|Nivelle]] offensive in the spring of 1917. Other causes were pacifism, stimulated by the [[Russian Revolution]] and the trade-union movement, and disappointment at the nonarrival of American troops.<ref>Bentley B. Gilbert and Paul P. Bernard, "The French Army Mutinies of 1917", ''Historian'' (1959) 22#1, pp. 24–41.</ref></blockquote>

Pétain conducted some successful but limited offensives in the latter part of 1917, while the British carried out an [[Battle of Passchendaele|offensive at Passchendaele]] that autumn. Pétain, instead, held off from major French offensives until the Americans arrived in force on the front lines, which did not happen until the early summer of 1918. He was also waiting for the new [[Renault FT]] tanks to be introduced in large numbers, hence his statement at the time: ''J'attends les chars et les Américains'' ("I am waiting for the tanks and the Americans."){{sfn|Mondet|2011|p=159}}

===End of World War I===
[[File:Foch Pershing Petain and Haig.jpg|thumb|Pétain, [[Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig|Haig]], [[Foch]] and [[John Pershing|Pershing]] in 1918]]

The year 1918 saw major German offensives on the Western Front. The first of these, [[Operation Michael]] in March 1918, threatened to split the British and French forces apart, and, after Pétain had threatened to retreat on Paris, the Doullens Conference was called. Just prior to the main meeting, Prime Minister [[Georges Clemenceau|Clemenceau]] claimed he heard Pétain say ''"les Allemands battront les Anglais en rase campagne, après quoi ils nous battront aussi"'' ("the Germans will beat the English (sic) in open country, then they'll beat us as well"). He reported this conversation to President [[Raymond Poincaré]], adding "surely a general should not speak or think like that?" [[Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig|Haig]] recorded that Pétain had "a terrible look. He had the appearance of a commander who had lost his nerve". Pétain believed – wrongly – that [[Hubert Gough|Gough]]'s [[Fifth Army (United Kingdom)|Fifth Army]] had been routed like the Italians at [[Battle of Caporetto|Caporetto]].{{sfn|Farrar-Hockley|1975|pp=301–302}} At the Conference, [[Ferdinand Foch]] was appointed as Allied [[Generalissimo]], initially with powers to co-ordinate and deploy Allied reserves where he saw fit. Pétain eventually came to the aid of the British and secured the front with forty French divisions.

Pétain proved a capable opponent of the Germans both in defence and through counter-attack. The third offensive, "Blücher", in May 1918, saw major German advances on the [[Aisne (river)|Aisne]], as the French Army commander (Humbert) ignored Pétain's instructions to [[defence in depth|defend in depth]] and instead allowed his men to be hit by the initial massive German bombardment. By the time of the last German offensives, Gneisenau and the [[Second Battle of the Marne]], Pétain was able to defend in depth and launch counter offensives, with the new French tanks and the assistance of the Americans. Later in the year, Pétain was stripped of his right of direct appeal to the French government and requested to report to Foch, who increasingly assumed the co-ordination and ultimately the command of the Allied offensives.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}} [[Armistice of 11 November 1918|On the day of the armistice]], Pétain wanted to continue offensive operations into Germany to prevent another war but was overruled by Foch.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-07-15 |title=Hero of Verdun: Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain |url=https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/hero-of-verdun-marshal-henri-philippe-petain/ |access-date=2023-12-26 |website=Warfare History Network |language=en-US}}</ref>
After the war ended Pétain was made [[Marshal of France]] on 21 November 1918.<ref>Tucker, S. C. (2009) ''A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East'', ABC-CLIO, California, p. 1738.</ref>