Charles Mangin Charles Emmanuel Marie Mangin ( 6 July 1866 – 12 May 1925 ) was a French general during World War I . Early career . Charles Mangin was born on 6 July 1866 in Sarrebourg . After initially failing to gain entrance to Saint - Cyr , he joined the 77th Infantry Regiment in 1885 . He reapplied and was accepted in Saint - Cyr in 1886 attaining the rank of Sub - Lieutenant in 1888 . He joined the 1st Marine Infantry Regiment based in Cherbourg . He was sent to Sudan , serving under Jean - Baptiste Marchand , and gained further experience in Mali , French North Africa . During this period he learnt Bambara , the lingua - franca of Mali . He was wounded three times and returned to France in 1892 . In 1893 he was made a Knight of the Legion d ' honneur . In 1898 Mangin joined Marchand on his expedition to Fashoda . In 1900 he attained the rank of Officer of the Legion d ' honneur and married Madeleine Henriette Jagerschmidt . They would go on to have eight children . He was given the command of a battalion in Tonkin from 1901 to 1904 . He was then promoted to Lieutenant - Colonel in 1905 and served during the French occupation of Senegal from 1906 to 1908 under General Audéoud . In 1910 he published " La force noire " , where he called for the use of French Colonial Forces in the event of a European war . First World War . During the First World War Mangin rose from divisional command to that of the 10th Army for the Second Battle of the Marne , commanding both French and American troops . Nicknamed " the Butcher " for his espousal of " la guerre à outrance " and his faith in the suitability of North African troops for the attack , there was no doubt in the French Army that Mangin was personally fearless . During that war , Mangin had notable victories at Charleroi and then at Verdun , but his reputation suffered following the disastrous Nivelle Offensive , ( 16 April – 9 May 1917 ) . This was due partly to the fact that Mangin was one of the few high - ranking French officials who supported Nivelle ' s strategy . Mangin ' s Sixth Army bore the brunt of the main attack during the Second Battle of the Aisne , the main component of Robert Nivelle ' s costly assault . After the failed operation was abandoned , both Mangin and Nivelle were removed from effective command . However , following Ferdinand Foch ' s promotion to Allied Supreme Commander ( over Philippe Pétain ) , Mangin was recalled upon the orders of Prime Minister Clemenceau and given command initially of a corps and then of the French Tenth Army on the Western Front . Although Mangin was despised by some of his troops ( who gave him the nickname " The Butcher " ) , his 10th Army was responsible for the crucial Allied counter - attack at the Second Battle of the Marne . It was this that largely promoted his military reputation . He also became known for the observation : " Quoi qu ' on fasse , on perd beaucoup de monde . " ( " Whatever you do , " ( i . e . attack or defend ) " you lose a lot of men . " ) . In the closing months of the war , he served as part of General Castelnau ' s Army Group East , advancing towards Metz . The incorporation of African troops in the French Army on a large scale , both before and especially during the war , was the result chiefly of Mangin ' s persistent advocacy of the idea , which had many opponents . His conception of a “ plus grande France , ” based on political autonomy and military obligation for all parts of the French Empire , is put forward in the concluding chapters of his book " Comment finit la Guerre " . Occupation of the Rhineland . After the Allied victory , Mangin ' s 10th Army was sent to occupy the Rhineland . There , he became the focus of controversy due to his attempts to foster the establishment of a pro - French Rhenish Republic with the aim of separating it from Germany and thus denying Germany the West bank of the Rhine . Mangin became a member of the Supreme War Council and inspector general of French colonial troops . He fell seriously ill at his Paris home on 9 March 1925 , suffering from incredible pain . He became incoherent and partly paralysed . The following day he was diagnosed as suffering from appendicitis and as having suffered a stroke , though it was rumoured he may have been poisoned . He died two days later , on 12 March . His remains were interred in Les Invalides in 1932 , and a statue erected in his honour in 1928 . A bronze statue of Mangin in the Place Denys - Cochin in Paris was destroyed on the 16th of June , 1940 ( German troops had entered Paris only two days earlier on the 14th ) . Mangin had guarded the Rhineland in 1920 with Senegalese troops ; every German ' knew ' that he ordered German mayors to provide brothels for his soldiers , and when the mayors protested at ' providing German women for Senegalese ' , Magin was alleged to have replied , ' German women are none too good for my Senegalese ' . A German demolition squad destroyed his statue and the broze was melted down and used for German bullets . During his tour of Paris , Adolf Hitler visited Napoleon ' s tomb and the statue , being a reminder of Mangin ' s machinations in the Rhineland , was one of two he ordered dynamited . ( The other was of Edith Cavell . ) In 1957 a new statue was erected on the nearby avenue de Breteuil .