Robert Nivelle

"Ils ne passeront pas! [They shall not pass!]"

"Good impression; clear eyes which look you in the face, neat and precise thoughts, no bluff in his speech, good sense dominates everything."

"Meteor-like, his orbit was swift and brilliant; also like a meteor, he was to disappear without trace. In the rapidity of his early promotion he resembled Pétain, but no further. He was an out-and-out Grandmaisonite, and like Foch he believed that victory was purely a matter of moral force. ... [T]he supreme attribute of Nivelle—cultured, courteous, suave and eloquent—was his ability to handle the politicians. His allure seems to have been almost hypnotic."

"Here is a chief in the Latin sense of the word, that is to say une tête ... confident hope rings a carillon of bells in our hearts."

"[Nivelle was] not only a rash commander, he was representative of the national temperament. This is the reason that he was blindly followed."