Joseph Joffre (Marshal Joffre / Papa Joffre)

Joseph Jacques Césaire Joffre (1852–1931), affectionately known as 'Papa Joffre', was a French military engineer and general who served as Commander-in-Chief of the French Army from 1914 to 1916. A veteran of the Franco-Prussian War and colonial campaigns in the French Sudan and Madagascar, Joffre was appointed Chief of the General Staff in 1911.

When the Imperial German Army invaded France and Belgium under the Schlieffen Plan in August 1914, pushing Allied forces into headlong retreat toward Paris, Joffre maintained legendary, unshakable composure. Refusing to panic, he organized a masterly strategic redeployment, shifting troops by rail to form the new Sixth Army and utilizing Gallieni's famous 'taxicabs of the Marne'. On September 6, 1914, Joffre launched the counter-offensive at the First Battle of the Marne, driving a wedge between Kluck and Bülow's armies, saving Paris from capture, and ending German hopes for a swift victory in World War I.