37 Facts About Marechal Joffre

Joseph Jacques Cesaire Joffre was a French general who served as Commander-in-Chief of French forces on the Western Front from the start of World War I until the end of 1916.

Marechal Joffre is best known for regrouping the retreating allied armies to defeat the Germans at the strategically decisive First Battle of the Marne in September 1914.

Marechal Joffre was born in Rivesaltes, Pyrenees-Orientales, into a family of vineyard owners.

Marechal Joffre entered the Ecole Polytechnique in 1870 and became a career officer.

Marechal Joffre first saw active service as a junior artillery officer during the Siege of Paris in the Franco-Prussian War.

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Marechal Joffre subsequently spent much of his career in the colonies as a military engineer, serving with distinction in the Keelung Campaign during the Sino-French War.

Marechal Joffre's mission killed over a hundred Tuareg and captured fifteen hundred cattle.

Marechal Joffre served under Joseph Gallieni in Madagascar and was promoted to General de brigade while serving there.

Marechal Joffre commanded the 2nd Army Corps from 1908 until 1910 when he was appointed to the Conseil superieur de la guerre.

Marechal Joffre believed that Liege was still holding out, and hoped that Lanrezac would be able to reach Namur, which was expected to hold out for even longer.

The Germans entered Brussels that day, but Marechal Joffre was convinced, after the defeat in Alsace-Lorraine and air and cavalry reports of strong German forces in Belgium, that the German centre in the Ardennes must be weak.

Fernand de Langle de Cary's Fourth Army, originally intended to be the spearhead of the attack into the Ardennes, was a strong force and had made several counterattacks, but Marechal Joffre now ordered it to cease counterattacking and to send a detachment under Ferdinand Foch to cover the gap between Fourth and Fifth Armies; this became the new Ninth Army.

Marechal Joffre turned up at Lanrezac's headquarters to supervise his conduct of the Battle of Guise, willing if necessary to sack him there and then.

That day Marechal Joffre placed Maunoury under Gallieni's direct command as the "Armies of Paris" and had Millerand place Gallieni under his own command.

Marechal Joffre's reply saying he preferred the southern option arrived too late to reach Gallieni, who had left for a meeting with the BEF chief of staff, Archibald Murray.

Marechal Joffre fought a further major offensive in the Artois in spring 1915.

Marechal Joffre met with Poincare and Briand both before and after the meeting to discuss the issue.

In practice, Marechal Joffre now took command over both Salonika and the Western Front, but not Morocco, Algeria or Tunisia.

Gallieni wrote to Marechal Joffre, expressing concern at the state of trenches at Verdun and elsewhere on the front; in fact, matters were already being taken in hand at Verdun.

Gallieni demanded to see all paperwork from the period, but Marechal Joffre had made no such order in writing, merely despatching Castelnau to assess the situation.

Early in 1916 Marechal Joffre asked the British commander-in-chief, Sir Douglas Haig, to put in a good word with Lord Bertie, the British ambassador in Paris, so that it would get back to the French government.

Marechal Joffre was successfully lobbied by Robertson, and at the second Chantilly Conference they agreed to concentrate on the Western Front in 1917 rather than sending greater resources to Salonika.

Marechal Joffre met Joffre on 3 December 1916—according to Joffre, promising to appoint him Marshal of France and to give him a staff of his own and "direction of the war".

Marechal Joffre was appointed "general-in-chief of the French armies, technical adviser to the government, consultative member of the War Committee", with Robert Nivelle as commander-in-chief of the Armies of the North and Northeast.

Marechal Joffre was still popular and was the first man to be promoted Marshal under the Third Republic.

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Marechal Joffre was initially reluctant to go as the Nivelle Offensive was underway.

Marechal Joffre initially considered recommending the incorporation of US companies and battalions into the French and British armies, but realised that the Americans would never accept this.

Marechal Joffre arrived in Washington the following morning, where he met Secretary of State Robert Lansing and Arthur Balfour.

Marechal Joffre stayed in Washington for ten days, and addressed both Houses of Congress individually.

Marechal Joffre recommended sending a single American unit to France at once and requested that the Americans send railroads, automobiles and trucks for the French Army.

Marechal Joffre recommended that an American unit be rushed to France to show the flag.

Marechal Joffre was an agnostic in religious views and had been a freemason since 1875, unlike many French generals, who were Catholic and therefore suspected of hostility to the Third Republic.

Marechal Joffre was generally taciturn and a man of impenetrable calm, sometimes interspersed with furious anger.

Marechal Joffre kept his cool when the initial attempt to have Maunoury envelop the German west flank at Amiens failed, requiring a retreat on Paris.

John Eisenhower writes that Marechal Joffre's "personality had a profound effect on the course of history" and he became a household name in the United States.

Marechal Joffre class of steam locomotives was a French Decauville design built by Kerr Stuart under contract during 1915 and 1916.

French aircraft carrier bearing Marechal Joffre's name was under construction at the start of World War II but was never completed due to France's rapid fall in 1940.