FOCH

Ferdinand, French soldier, was born in Tarbes, in the department of Hautes-Pyrénées, on 2nd Oct., 1851. Tarbes is a city of some 20,000 493 FOCH inhabitants, and at the time of Ferdinand’s birth his father held the position of Secretary-General of the Prefecture. Through his mother, Foch is descended from an officer who attained a considerable eminence under Napoleon. M. Foch’s position as a civil servant making periodical changes of residence a matter of course, Ferdinand was, in his earlier life, sent to different local schools; and it was not till his eighteenth year that he was entered as a pupil in the College of St. Clement at Metz, with a view to preparing himself for the cole Poly technique. The outbreak of the Franco-German War caused an interlude in his studies, Marshal Foch “~ and the young Foch joined the army and was posted to an infantry depot. On the conclusion of peace in 1871 he returned to Metz to complete his studies, and, in November of the same year, entered the Heole Poly technique. Here he remained till early in 1873, when he was transferred to the cole d’Application at Fontainebleau, a school for artillery and engineers. In Oct., 1874 he was gazetted lieutenant in the artillery and posted to the 24th Regiment of Artillery at Tarbes, his birthplace. Three years Jater he went through the eavalry school at Saumur, and on leaving it was promoted captain. During his period at Saumur he married Mlle. Julie Bien venue. In 1885 Captain Foch was sent to the Heole Supérieure de Guerre in Paris. After two years at the war school or staff college, he was appointed to the staff of a division, till in 1891 he was recailed to Paris as @ major on the General Staff. After this he had an interval of regimental duty in command of a horse-artillery battery, and in 1895 he was appointed profe or of military history, strategy, and applied tactics at the Ecole Supérjeure de Guerre. Here he made his mark, as is evident from a contemporary appreciation of him in the Correspond ant. In 1900 Lieutenant-Colonel Foch left the Keole de Guerre, and, after a period of regimental and staff service, was promoted brigadier-general on the General Staff, and was offered and accepted the post of Director-in-Chief of the Ecole de Guerre. In 1911 Foch was promoted to the rank of general of division, and took over command of the 13th Division at Chaumont. The following year saw him transferred to the command of the 8th Army Corps at Bourges, and in 1913 to that of the 20th Corps at Nancy, forming part of General de Castelnau’s Second Army. This was his command when the European War broke out. At the head of his corps Foch took a prominent part in the operations in Lorraine in the month of Aug., 1914, though towards the end of that month he was ordered by General Joffre to report himself for duty at General Head-quarters. Here he found that he had been selected to take command of the Ninth Army, then in proce of formation out of corps and divisions taken from other armies. The retreat to the Marne was in progre , and it was in view of an eventual counterstroke, that reorganizations were being carried out. Foch established his head-quarters temporarily at Chdlons, and proceeded to form and know his new command. When the great retreat at last came to an end on Sth Sept., 1914, Joffre i ued his orders for the counterattack which will be known to all time as the first battle of the Marne. In this series of operations the duties a igned to the Ninth Army were as follows: ‘‘The Ninth Army will cover the right of the Fifth Army, and hold the southern approaches to the marshes of Saint Gond. A portion of its forees will occupy the plateau north of Sézanne.” The distribution of the various armies was such that, according to this arrangement, Foch’s command was in the centre, and was opposed to the Second and part of the Third German Armies under vou Biilow and von Hausen. The offensive started on 6th Sept.. and by the 8th Foch’s command had been severely handled. It was in accordance with his invariable teaching, that the best defence is offence, 494 FOCH that he is said to have sent the following laconic me age to General Headquarters: “My centre is giving way, mny right is falling back; the situation is excellent. I shall attack.” And he attacked with such succe that on the 10th the Germans retreated. For his services on this occasion General Foch was awarded the Grand Croix of the Legion of Honour. Early in October, Foch was appointed a ociate to the Commander in-Chief, to co-ordinate movements of all Allied troops defending the coast, i.e. from the Oise to the sea, unity of command being thus established in some small measure and being made po ible by his personality. During 1916 Foch had much to do with the preliminary arrangements for the battle of the Somme, and, when in September of this year he reached the age limit, he was specially retained on the active list and given the Médaille Militaire, which, given to a general officer, is the highest honour which the French Government can award. He also became head of the Board for the Investigation of Inter-Aliied Military Questions. In May, 1917, he became Chief of the Staff vice General Pétain, appointed Commander-in Chief; in October he visited Italy to discu with the Italian General Staff the measures nece ary to stabilize matters there. At the same time he was President of the Inter-Allied War Council which had been constituted at Versailles, and which was faced with the problem of deciding on the measures nece ary to meet the expected German attack on the Western Front. Not until this great attack had taken place, and all but succeeded, was the principle of the single command finally recognized and agreed to, Foch becoming Generali imo of the French, British, Belgian and American armies on 26th March, 1918; and to Foch in his new position is due the credit of the great counter-stroke which saved the situation at the second battle of the Marne, and which was the beginning of the end. The French Government marked their thankful appreciation of his great services by bestowing upon him the dignity and rank of a Marshal of France, and on 23rd Aug., 1918, the bdton was presented to him by the President of the Republic at General Head-quarters. He died in 1929. Ags an author Marshal Foch’s fame rests principally on two books, both of which grew out of lectures at the ¥eole de Guerre. These are The Principles of War and The Conduct of War. It is interesting to compare an extract from the first, published in 1900, with the opening section of the British Field Service Regulations, part i, of 1809 “A battlefield does not give any opportunity for study; one does what one can to apply what one already knows, therefore it is nece ary that one should know thoroughly and be able to use one’s knowledge quickly.” (Principles of War.) *““The principles... should be so thoroughly impre ed on the mind of every commander that, whenever he has to come to a decision in the field, he instinctively gives them their full weight.” (Held Service Regulations, part i, section 1, paragraph 1.)—BirLIOGRAPHY: Raymond Recouly, Foch; R. Puaux, Marshal Foch; A. H. Atteridge, Marshal Ferdinand Foch; E. G. Marks, How Foch makes War.