Marie Eugène Debeney was a French Army general who fought in the First World War. He commanded a corps at the Battle of the Somme in 1916 then, in the second half of 1917, served as chief of staff to the French Commander-in-Chief Philippe Pétain. He then commanded the First Army which, fighting alongside British Empire forces, played an important role in the mobile fighting of 1918, including at the Battle of Amiens and the Storming of the Hindenburg Line.
General Debeney in 1926
Commemorative tablet to General Debeney in Amiens Cathedral
Henri Philippe Bénoni Omer Joseph Pétain, commonly known as Philippe Pétain or Marshal Pétain, was a French general who commanded the French Army in World War I and became the head of the collaborationist regime of Vichy France, from 1940 to 1944, during World War II.
Official portrait, c. 1941
Pétain in the 1880s
Pétain in 1915. Autochrome portrait by Jules Gervais-Courtellemont
Pétain, Haig, Foch and Pershing in 1918