The French General Robert Nivelle ordered a new offensive against the German trenches after a series of stalemates, promising that it would be a war-winner.
The attack, dubbed the Nivelle Offensive (also known as Chemin des Dames, after the area where the offensive took place), would be 1.2 million men strong, to be preceded by a week-long artillery bombardment and accompanied by tanks.
However, the operation proceeded poorly as the French troops, aided by Australian, Brazilian, Portuguese, and New Zealand troops, had to negotiate rough, upward-sloping terrain. In addition, detailed planning had been dislocated by the voluntary German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line, secrecy had been compromised, and German planes gained control of the sky making reconnaissance difficult. This allowed the creeping barrage to move too far ahead of the advancing troops. Within a week 100,000 French troops were dead. Despite the heavy casualties and his promise to halt the offensive if it did not produce a breakthrough, Nivelle ordered the attack continued into May. 
On 3 May the weary French 2nd Colonial Division, veterans of the Battle of Verdun, refused their orders, arriving drunk and without their weapons. Their officers lacked the means to punish an entire division, and harsh measures were not immediately implemented. Thereupon the mutinies afflicted 54 French divisions and saw 20,000 men desert. The other Allied forces attacked but received massive casualties. Ho
however, appeals to patriotism and duty, as well as mass arrests and trials, encouraged the soldiers to return to defend their trenches, although the French soldiers refused to participate in further offensive action. Niv
nevelle was removed from command by 15 May, replaced by General Philippe Pétain, who suspended large-scale attacks. The French would go on the defensive for the following months, in order to avoid high casualties and to give back confidence to soldiers in their own High Command.
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