Henri Mathias Berthelot

Henri Berthelot
Berthelot in 1920
Born7 December 1861 (1861-12-07)
Feurs, Loire, France
Died29 January 1931(1931-01-29) (aged 69)
Paris, Seine, France
Allegiance France
 Romania
Years of service1883-1926
Rank Général de Division holding higher command
Commands heldFrench Military Mission in Romania
Fifth Army (France)
Battles/warsWorld War I
Hungarian–Romanian War
AwardsGrand cross of the Légion d'honneur
Croix de guerre 1914-1918
Honorary citizen of Romania

Henri Mathias Berthelot (7 December 1861 – 29 January 1931) was a French general during World War I. He held an important staff position under Joseph Joffre, the French commander-in-chief, at the First Battle of the Marne, before later commanding a corps in the front line. In 1917 he helped to rebuild the Romanian Army following its disastrous defeat the previous autumn, then in summer 1918 he commanded French Fifth Army at the Second Battle of the Marne, with some British and Italian troops under his command. In the final days of the war he again returned to Romania, helping fight the Hungarians during the Hungarian–Romanian War and then briefly commanded French intervention forces in southern Russia in the Russian Civil War, fighting the Bolsheviks in Bessarabia (1918).

Appointed a member of the Conseil supérieur de la guerre, he was among the supporters of the decision to build the Maginot Line.


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