Commands (left) and
Adolphe Guillaumat (right). At the outbreak of
World War I in August 1914, de Langle de Cary was placed in command of the Fourth Army. In concert with General
Pierre Ruffey and his
Third Army and General
Charles Lanrezac and his
Fifth Army, he was ordered by
Joseph Joffre to attack the Germans advancing south through the heavily forested and ravined Ardennes. They were badly outnumbered by the Germans facing them attacking from above and were defeated with very heavy losses in the
Battle of the Ardennes but managed to withdraw and form a line of defense strong enough to halt the German counter-offensive. Unlike Ruffey and Lanrezac, Langle de Cary was not relieved of his command. He continued at the head of the Fourth Army (though its strength was greatly reduced for the benefit of
Ferdinand Foch's newly created
Sixth Army) in the
Marne and
Aisne operations and in the trench warfare fighting of 1915. He commanded the French forces in the
Second Battle of Champagne, another failed and costly French offensive ordered by Joffre.
Verdun blame and forced retirement Nevertheless, de Langle de Cary replaced
Edouard de Curieres de Castelnau as commander of the
Central Army Group in December, 1915, when Castelnau was promoted to be Joffre's second-in-command. In this capacity, de Langle de Cary became responsible, among other duties, for overseeing the defensive readiness of Verdun. The German attack
erupted onto Verdun in February, 1916, and the fears that he had expressed earlier about conditions there proved to be only too well founded, thus the army command was radically reorganized by Joffre who wanted more aggressive commanders, and Langle was replaced by
Philippe Pétain, officially on grounds of his age, 66 (the official retirement age being 65). He had only been in command two months.
Romania entered the war on the side of the Allies in August 1916. De Langle de Cary was Joffre's first choice to head the
French military mission there, but the suggestion was rejected by the French Minister there,
Charles de Saint Aulaire. Instead,
Henri Mathias Berthelot was appointed. De Langle de Cary was retired (removed from the officer Active List) the following year. He died on 19 February 1927. == Notes ==