Joseph Joffre (1852-1931), French commander during the first two years of World War I. Joffre was born in Rivesaltes and educated at the École Polytechnique, Paris. He is known chiefly for the successful counter-attack carried out by the French army under his direction against the German armies that had invaded France at the beginning of the war and that had almost reached Paris by September 1914. Joffre's victory in this engagement, the first Battle of the Marne, caused the Germans to abandon their march on Paris and to fall back to the River Aisne. This success made Joffre a national hero; his subsequent failure to break the German lines, however, and the German onslaughts against the strongly fortified city of Verdun, which they nearly captured in 1916, caused dissatisfaction with Joffre's leadership. On December 13, 1916, General Robert Georges Nivelle succeeded him as actual commander of the French armies, although Joffre still retained the title of commander in chief. Subsequently, Joffre was made a marshal of France. In 1918 he was elected a member of the French Academy.