1-217-627 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Auguste Dubail, French First World War general, (1926). Dubail (1851-1934) was commander of the French 1st Army at the beginning of the war. Although unsuccessful in trying to recapture Lorraine from the Germans, the 1st Army's defence of the heights of the Meuse was crucial in preventing the Germans from routing the French armies in the war's opening stages. Promoted in 1915 to command the Eastern Army Group, Dubail predicted the coming German offensive at Verdun, but his warning and his request for artillery reinforcements were ignored. When the German blow did fall, Dubail was made a scapegoat and dismissed from his command by Joseph Joffre, the French Commander-in-Chief. He saw out the rest of the war as military governor of Paris.