THE NEW FRENCH COMMANDER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1653, 21 December 1916, Page 4

THE NEW FRENCH COMMANDER.

General Nivelle, the newly-ap-pointed Commander-in-Chief of the French force, has early given proof of his soldierly qualities, by a big success at Verdun, in the co-op-eration with General Detain. General Xivcllc was placed in direct command of the Verdun army at the beginning of May in succession to General Detain, who was promoted and placed in charge of another sector. He had had a long period of war service in the colonies, and at the commencement of the present ■war hehl the rank of colonel, commanding the nth Infantry Regiment. His promotion was rapid. In October, 1915, he commanded a brigade nnd four months later was acting-<c-ommauder of the (ith Division. Laser, as General of Division, he look over the Third A.nay Corps, ami was subsequently appointed to his present position. He was an old Polytechnique man. pud had specialised in the nse of a i'|ti))ery. His career is in many respects .similar to that of Detain. General Xivelle is a descendant of a family of wnrTiffiTff, and, as a French paper remarked, lie inspired the same continence in las heroic soldiers as his predecessor. jßwpgwlprly little is known outside of the Fyejjch Army •of General Nivelle’s career. no doubt, is attributable to the policy of silence as regards the achievements of individual generals, which has been followed by most of the Powers concerned since the outbreak of the war. For example, there is a continual promotion of new men to positions of first-rate importance in the British Army,, hilt these promotions are scarcely ever mentioned iti the cables, and the general public know nothing, not even the names, of most of the meir who are commands# pfir armies. ' So all that the cables #.• obtain about: General Nivelle is that h« first made his imputation by capturing 21 guns at the putbreak of war (the guns were the first captured by the French, and the event in Alsace), and that snbseqmmfly., *pn September Kith, 1914, he rep.u'is<ed a surprise attack by the Germans

on the..7th French Army Corps which was caught in the act ot crossing the A ism*. He was in command of a brigade of artillery (hen, and, galloping np at the head of his guns, -which he handled with conspicuous coolness and skill, he made a great massacre of the enemy and saved the situation. He also played a prominent part in repulsing the German attempt to surprise Soissons in January 191 o. This led to his promotion to the command of the division, which he took over on the Ifllh February, and with it he shortly afterwards took the salient-of Qnenniveres. Little more was heard of him by the general public until he turned np at Verdun, after the opening of the great German attack. He proved himself so conspicuously able a tactician there that when General Pelain was promoted to the command of the French central armies he was given the chief command at Verdun. He defended that place with conspicuous success until the Russian and Anglo-French successes, the entry of Houmania and the supercession of Marshal \on Falkenhayn on the gradual realisation by Germany that the attack on A erdun hail been a criminal blunder led to the dropping of the German offensive there. Then he quietly prepared the stroke which restored the whole of the main defensive line of the fortress and robbed the enemy of their principal gains, following this up by his coup on Saturday. It is said of General Xivelle that he is a tactician of remarkable skill, and a man of immense energy, who exhibits the coolest courage in a crisis. His successes justify the eulogium.