Louis Franchet d ' Espèrey Louis Félix Marie François Franchet d ' Espèrey ( ; ( 25 May 1856 – 8 July 1942 ) was a French general during World War I . Early years . He was born in Mostaganem in French Algeria , the son of an officer of cavalry in the " Chasseurs d ' Afrique " . He was educated at Saint - Cyr and graduated in 1876 . He served in French Indochina , China ( in the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 , during which his cousin the German plenipotentiary Clemens von Ketteler was killed ) and Morocco before 1914 . He received command of I Corps in 1913 . First World War . 1914 . In 1914 , Franchet d ' Espèrey did well as a corps commander at the Battle of Charleroi . On 23 August , the third day of the battle , with the German Second Army pressing the French centre , Franchet d ’ Esperey saw an opportunity for his I Corps to counterattack from the French right . Despite repeated pleas from 10am onward , Lanrezac refused him permission to do so . On 23 August Fifth Army was attacked again , this time also on the flanks , by Bulow ’ s German Second Army to the north and Hausen ’ s German Third Army against Franchet to the right . At the Battle of Guise ( 29 August ) the day was won by a successful attack by Franchet d ’ Esperey ’ s I Corps in the north – leading his men on horseback , d ’ Esperey is said to have called out “ how do you like this advance , Mr Staff College Professor ? ” to Colonel Petain , who was then commanding an infantry brigade . On the eve of the First Battle of the Marne , Franchet d ' Espèrey was given command of the Fifth Army . When asked by Joffre whether he was willing to accept the command he replied equivocally “ the same as another ” . Despite being a naturally kindly man , he affected a tyrannical demeanour to galvanise his officers . Spears , then a lieutenant liaising between the BEF and the Fifth Army , wrote than Franchet physically resembled a howitzer shell , and of the “ galvanic effect ” which he had on his staff on taking command . He ordered that any man not doing his duty was to be shot , including staff officers . Conscious that his predecessor Lanrezac had had poor relations with the BEF commander Sir John French , he immediately sent him a telegram signed “ Franchet d ’ Esperey KCVO ” promising cooperation . On his first day ( 4 September ) he met the BEF Sub - Chief of Staff Wilson to agree a plan of attack and ensure good relations with the BEF , and as Joffre was eating his dinner at 6 . 30pm impressed him by presenting a plan for a concerted attack by the Allied armies , which became the basis for " Instruction Generale No 6 " , the Allied plan of attack at the Marne . Mid War . By March 1916 , Franchet d ' Espérey was in command of the Eastern Army Group and by January 1917 the Northern Army Group . He was badly defeated by the Germans at the Battle of Chemin des Dames in May 1918 . Salonika . Removed from the Western Front , he was appointed commander of the Allied armies at Salonika . Between 15 and 29 September 1918 General Franchet d ' Espèrey , in command of a large army of Greeks ( 9 divisions ) , French ( 6 divisions ) , Serbs ( 6 divisions ) , British ( 4 divisions ) and Italians ( 1 division ) - staged a successful offensive in Macedonia that knocked Bulgaria out of the war . General Franchet d ' Espèrey followed up this victory by overrunning much of the Balkans and by the war ' s end , his troops had penetrated well into Hungary . During this final campaign , he was given the nickname " Desperate Frankie " by the British officers . Post World War I career . After World War I ended , General Franchet d ' Espèrey directed operations against the Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919 . He was made a marshal of France on 19 February 1921 and was given an honorary title of Vojvoda ( equivalent of Field - Marshal ) from the Yugoslav ' s . In 1924 Franchet d ' Espèrey was inspector - general of North African troops , and became interested in the strategic potential of the " grand axis " north - south route . He joined a trans - Saharan expedition led by Gaston Gradis that left Colomb - Béchar on 15 November 1924 in three six - wheel Renaults . Other members were the journalist Henri de Kérillis , commandant Ihler , the brothers Georges Estienne and René Estienne , three Renault mechanics and three legionnaires . The expedition reached Savé in Dahomey on 3 December 1924 after a journey of . The expedition leaders took the train south , and reached Porto - Novo on the Atlantic on 14 December 1924 . Franchet d ' Espèrey represented France at the coronation of Haile Selassie of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa on 1 November 1930 . He was elected to the Académie française on 15 November 1934 . Death . He died in Albi , France , on 8 July 1942 , with his country under the rule of the same German enemy he had fought against in the Great War . Assessment . Franchet d ' Espèrey had drive and great energy and his victories against Bulgaria and the remnants of the German and Austro - Hungarian armies were independent of the situation on the Western front , demonstrated by the fact that they came before the main assault on the Hindenburg Line and against a still capable army that offered strong resistance to the British and Greeks in the Battle of Doiran . As a consequence of his generalship Bulgaria signed armistice on 29 September , thus becoming the first Central Power to sign an armistice . In terms of personality , he was vain and pompous , if able . In terms of politics , Franchet d ' Espèrey was a nationalist Royalist whose loyalty to France outweighed his loyalty to the Bourbons . British troops , unable to pronounce his name properly , nicknamed him " Desperate Frankie . " Several French cities and towns have boulevards and roads named after d ' Espèrey , among them Dijon , Reims , Saint - Étienne , Versailles and Lorient . The Belgian city of Dinant has an Avenue Franchet d ' Esperey . In the Serbian capital Belgrade , a boulevard has been named after him , as well as a street in the center of Thessaloniki , the second largest city of Greece . References . Citations Sources