Who's Who - Adolphe Guillaumat
General Adolphe Marie Louis
Adolphe Guillaumat (1863-1940) ended the First World War as an experienced
French army officer with a reputation for diplomacy and efficient
competence.
Active from the opening month of the war Guillaumat was given command of a division on the Western Front in August 1914. By the close of 1916 he had risen to command of the French Second Army at Verdun, replacing Robert Nivelle.
Entrusted with the conduct of the first notable attack conducted by the French army in the wake of the mutinies of May-June 1917, he launched an attack upon German forces north of the Verdun fortress in August 1917.
He was subsequently placed in command of the Salonika operation in December 1917 and laid the plans subsequently executed by his successor in the region, Franchet d'Esperey, in addition to rebuilding fragile inter-allied relations at Salonika so damaged by his predecessor Maurice Sarrail.
Guillaumat himself was recalled to Paris and installed as its military governor (replacing Dubail) in June 1918. In the wake of the successful Allied Second Battle of the Marne Guillaumat was appointed to the Supreme War Council at Versailles.
Finally returning to active command on the Western Front (at the head of Fifth Army), Guillaumat led his forces through the Ardennes to the war's close. He subsequently served as a post-war Minister for War.
In WW1 an "ace" was a pilot who scored five confirmed "kills".
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