In December 1916, Allied commanders met once again at Chantilly in France to make their plans for 1917.

The 1917 plan didn't look much different from the 1916 plan.

Again, the French and their British allies would attack in Picardy and Champagne in the hope of forcing

the Germans back. This time it would work, they told themselves. There were more British soldiers in

France than ever, almost one and a half million now, with more arriving every week, and both armies

were better equipped and wielded more firepower than ever before.

But 1917 would see dramatic changes that would render those plans obsolete,

the February Revolution, the U-Boats, the entry of the United States into the war,

and a shift in German defensive tactics

that would challenge the Allies all over again.

Welcome to the history of the 20th century.

Welcome to the history of the 20th century. The The The other, Episode 140, the Hindenberg line.

The French commander at that December 1916 conference at Chantilly was our old friend

General Joseph Heshoffer.

He took the lead in hammering out the 1917 war plan, with no idea he wouldn't be

around to lead it.

In much the same way that the British general, Sir John French, participated in the December

1915 Chantilly conference and was sacked soon after, Jaffer's turn came shortly after the

1916 conference.

The new French commander would be Robert Nivelle, the hero of Verdun, who had led the counterattacks

late in 1916 that had retaken many of the German gains.

Nivelle's key innovation was the use of artillery not so much to destroy the enemy's defensive

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