France
Charles Mangin
1866–1925 French general: Verdun counterattacks, 1916; Tenth Army, 1918
Born in Sarrebourg, Charles Mangin graduated from Saint-Cyr in 1888 and made his career in the colonial army, joining the expedition of Jean-Baptiste Marchand to Fashoda in 1898. He later wrote La force noire, urging the use of colonial troops in a European war. At Verdun in 1916 he failed to retake Fort Douaumont in May, but the counterattack he led there in October succeeded, and a December offensive recovered more positions lost earlier in the year. Nicknamed "the Butcher" for his costly offensive style, he was dismissed after the failure of the Nivelle offensive in 1917. In 1918 his Tenth Army carried out the counterattack of 18 July at Villers-Cotterêts. He died on 12 May 1925; German forces destroyed his Paris statue in 1940.