Editing Philippe Pétain (section)

===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]].