Military lessons from Verdun

The successes of Nivelle and Mangin, who succeeded in pushing back the Germans by using new methods of attack (short artillery preparations before the assault), led politicians to believe that they had found, with these new leaders, the means to end the war victoriously. At the end of 1916, Joffre was dismissed and replaced by General Nivelle, who the following year, in 1917, wanted to repeat his success at Verdun on a much larger scale. The offensive failed and resulted in a series of mutinies in the French army.