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Famed French First World War general Joseph Joffre (1852-1931) was renowned for his calm and imperturbability. What were some aspects of this?

Answer: Joseph Joffre was a famous French general during the First World War. He is perhaps best known for regrouping the retreating allied armies to defeat the Germans at the strategically decisive First Battle of the Marne, in the first weeks of the war in 1914.

Joffre had a remarkable temperament. He would send off tens of thousands of men to be killed or wounded, and that night would go to bed punctually at 10pm and promptly fall asleep.

Unflappable, he was the personification of coolness and calmness under pressure. In short, he was like an unmoving rock amid a world of disquiet and near chaos.

Source: Marshal Joffre – The Triumphs, Failures and Controversies of France’s Commander-In-Chief in the Great War by Andre Bourachot and Andrae Bourachot

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