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39 chapters
DEDICATION TO THE MEN WHO HAVE FOUGHT UNDER GENERAL FOCH'S COMMAND. TO ALL Of THEM, IN ALL GRATITUDE. BUT IN AN ESPECIAL WAY TO THE MEN OF THE 42D DIVISION, THE SPLENDOR OF WHOSE CONDUCT ON SEPTEMBER 9, 1914, NO PEN WILL EVER BE ABLE ADEQUATELY TO COMMEMORATE.
DEDICATION TO THE MEN WHO HAVE FOUGHT UNDER GENERAL FOCH'S COMMAND. TO ALL Of THEM, IN ALL GRATITUDE. BUT IN AN ESPECIAL WAY TO THE MEN OF THE 42D DIVISION, THE SPLENDOR OF WHOSE CONDUCT ON SEPTEMBER 9, 1914, NO PEN WILL EVER BE ABLE ADEQUATELY TO COMMEMORATE.
Hand-written letter from Foch. Page 1 of hand-written letter from Lt.-Colonel E. Réquin to Clara Laughlin.] Page 2 of hand-written letter from Lt.-Colonel E. Réquin to Clara Laughlin.] Dear MADEMOISELLE LAUGHLIN: I have read with the keenest interest your sketch of the life of Marshal Foch. It is not yet history: we are too close to events to write it now, but it is the story of a great leader of men on which I felicitate you because of your real understanding of his character. Christian, French
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"THEY SHALL NOT PASS!"
"THEY SHALL NOT PASS!"
Three Spirits stood on the mountain peak And gazed on a world of red,-- Red with the blood of heroes, The living and the dead; A mighty force of Evil strove With freemen, mass on mass. Three Spirits stood on the mountain peak And cried: "They shall not pass!" The Spirits of Love and Sacrifice, The Spirit of Freedom, too,-- They called to the men they had dwelt among Of the Old World and the New! And the men came forth at the trumpet call, Y
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I. WHERE HE WAS BORN
I. WHERE HE WAS BORN
Stirring traditions and historic scenes which surrounded him in childhood....
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II. BOYHOOD SURROUNDINGS
II. BOYHOOD SURROUNDINGS
The horsemarkets at Tarbes. The school. Foch at twelve a student of Napoleon....
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III. A YOUNG SOLDIER OF A LOST CAUSE
III. A YOUNG SOLDIER OF A LOST CAUSE
What Foch suffered in the defeat of France by the Prussians....
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IV. PARIS AFTER THE GERMANS LEFT
IV. PARIS AFTER THE GERMANS LEFT
Foch begins his military studies, determined to be ready when France should again need defense....
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V. LEARNING TO BE A ROUGH RIDER
V. LEARNING TO BE A ROUGH RIDER
Begins to specialize in cavalry training. The school at Saumur....
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VI. FIRST YEARS IN BRITTANY
VI. FIRST YEARS IN BRITTANY
Seven years at Rennes as artillery captain and always student of war. Called to Paris for further training....
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VII. JOFFRE AND FOCH
VII. JOFFRE AND FOCH
Parallels in their careers since their school days together....
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VIII. THE SUPERIOR SCHOOL OF WAR
VIII. THE SUPERIOR SCHOOL OF WAR
Where Foch's great work as teacher prepared hundreds of officers for the superb parts they have played in this war....
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IX. THE GREAT TEACHER
IX. THE GREAT TEACHER
Some of the principles Foch taught. Why he is not only the greatest strategist and tactician of all time, but the ideal leader and coordinator of democracy....
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X. A COLONEL AT FIFTY
X. A COLONEL AT FIFTY
Clemenceau's part in giving Foch his opportunity....
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XI. FORTIFYING FRANCE
XI. FORTIFYING FRANCE
How the Superior War Council prepared for the inevitable invasion of France. Foch put in command at Nancy....
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XII. ON THE EVE OF WAR
XII. ON THE EVE OF WAR
True to his belief that "the way to make war is to attack" Foch promptly invaded Germany, but was obliged to retire and defend his own soil....
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XIII. THE BATTLE OF LORRAINE
XIII. THE BATTLE OF LORRAINE
How the brilliant generalship there thwarted the German plan; and how Joffre recognized it in reorganizing his army....
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XIV. THE FIRST VICTORY AT THE MARNE
XIV. THE FIRST VICTORY AT THE MARNE
"The Miracle of the Marne" was Foch. How he turned defeat to victory....
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XV. SENT NORTH TO SAVE CHANNEL PORTS
XV. SENT NORTH TO SAVE CHANNEL PORTS
Foch's skill and diplomacy in that crisis show him a great coordinator....
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XVI. THE SUPREME COMMANDER
XVI. THE SUPREME COMMANDER
How Foch stopped the German drive that nearly separated the French and English armies....
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XVII. BRINGING GERMANY TO ITS KNEES
XVII. BRINGING GERMANY TO ITS KNEES
The completest humiliation ever inflicted on a proud nation....
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XVIII. DURING THE ARMISTICE—AND AFTER
XVIII. DURING THE ARMISTICE—AND AFTER
How Foch carries himself as victor....
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FOREWORD TO REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION
FOREWORD TO REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION
When the Great War broke out, one military name "led all the rest" in world-prominence: Kitchener. Millions of us were confident that the hero of Kartoum would save the world. It was not so decreed. Almost immediately another name flashed into the ken of every one, until even lisping children said Joffre with reverence second only to that wherewith they named Omnipotence. Then the weary years dragged on, and so many men were incredibly brave and good that it seemed hard for anyone to become pre-
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I WHERE HE WAS BORN
I WHERE HE WAS BORN
Ferdinand Foch was born at Tarbes on October 2, 1851. His father, of good old Pyrenean stock and modest fortune, was a provincial official whose office corresponded to that of secretary of state for one of our commonwealths. So the family lived in Tarbes, the capital of the department called the Upper Pyrénées. The mother of Ferdinand was Sophie Dupré, born at Argèles, twenty miles south of Tarbes, nearer the Spanish border. Her father had been made a chevalier of the empire by Napoleon I for se
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II BOYHOOD SURROUNDINGS
II BOYHOOD SURROUNDINGS
The country round about Tarbes has long been famed for its horses of an Arabian breed especially suitable for cavalry. Practically all the farmers of the region raised these fine, fleet animals. There was a great stud-farm on the outskirts of town, and the business of breeding mounts for France's soldiers was one of the first that little Ferdinand Foch heard a great deal about. He learned to ride, as a matter of course, when he was very young. And all his life he has been an ardent and intrepid
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III A YOUNG SOLDIER OF A LOST CAUSE
III A YOUNG SOLDIER OF A LOST CAUSE
There is nothing to record of Ferdinand Foch's first soldiering except that from the dépôt of the Fourth Regiment of Infantry, in his home city of Saint-Étienne, he was sent to Chalon-sur-Saône, and there was discharged in January, 1871, after the capitulation of Paris. He did not distinguish himself in any way. He was just one of a multitude of youths who rushed to the colors when France called, and did what they could in a time of sad confusion, when a weak government had paralyzed the effecti
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IV PARIS AFTER THE GERMANS LEFT
IV PARIS AFTER THE GERMANS LEFT
Ferdinand Foch entered the Polytechnic School at Paris on the 1st of November, 1871, just after he had completed his twentieth year. This school, founded in 1794, is for the technical education of military and naval engineers, artillery officers, civil engineers in government employ, and telegraphists—not mere operators, of course, but telegraph engineers and other specialists in electric communication. It is conducted by a general, on military principles, and its students are soldiers on their
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V LEARNING TO BE A ROUGH RIDER
V LEARNING TO BE A ROUGH RIDER
When Ferdinand Foch graduated, third in his class, from the artillery school at Fontainebleau, instead of seeking to use what influence he might have commanded to get an appointment in some garrison where the town life or social life was gay for young officers, he asked to be sent back to Tarbes. No one, to my knowledge, has advanced an explanation for this move. To so earnest and ambitious a student of military art (Foch will not permit us to speak of it as "military science") sentimental reaso
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VI FIRST YEARS IN BRITTANY
VI FIRST YEARS IN BRITTANY
Upon leaving the cavalry school at Saumur, in 1878, Ferdinand Foch went, with the rank of captain of the Tenth Regiment of Artillery, to Rennes, the ancient capital of Brittany and the headquarters of France's tenth army corps. He stayed at Rennes, as an artillery captain, for seven years. It is not a particularly interesting city from some points of view, but it is a very "livable" one, and for a student like Foch it had many advantages. The library is one of the best in provincial France and h
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VII JOFFRE AND FOCH
VII JOFFRE AND FOCH
After quitting the School of War in 1887 (he graduated fourth in his class, as he had at Saumur; he was third at Fontainebleau), Ferdinand Foch was sent to Montpellier as a probationer for the position of staff officer. He remained at Montpellier for four years—first as a probationer and later as a staff officer in the Sixteenth Army Corps, whose headquarters are there. Marshall Joffre, General Foch It is a coincidence—without special significance, but interesting—that Captain Joseph Joffre had
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VIII THE SUPERIOR SCHOOL OF WAR
VIII THE SUPERIOR SCHOOL OF WAR
After a year's service as associate professor of military history, strategy, and applied tactics at the Superior School of War in Paris, Ferdinand Foch was advanced to head professorship in those branches and at the same time he was made lieutenant-colonel. This was in 1896. He was forty-five years old and had been for exactly a quarter of a century a student of the art of warfare. His old schoolfellow, Joseph Joffre, was then building fortifications in northern Madagascar; and his army rank was
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IX THE GREAT TEACHER
IX THE GREAT TEACHER
Foch made the men who sat under him love their work for the work's sake and not for its rewards. He fired them with an ardor for military art which made them feel that in all the world there is nothing so fascinating, so worth while, as knowing how to defend one's country when she needs defense. He was able, in peace times when the military spirit was little applauded and much decried, to give his students an enthusiasm for "preparedness" which flamed as high and burned as pure as that which ord
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X A COLONEL AT FIFTY
X A COLONEL AT FIFTY
"It was not," Napoleon wrote, "the Roman legions which conquered Gaul, but Caesar. It was not the Carthaginian soldiers who made Rome tremble, but Hannibal. It was not the Macedonian phalanx which penetrated India, but Alexander. It was not the French army which reached the Weser and the Inn, but Turenne. It was not the Prussian soldiers who defended their country for seven years against the three most formidable powers in Europe; it was Frederick the Great." And already it has been suggested th
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XI FORTIFYING FRANCE WITH GREAT PRINCIPLES
XI FORTIFYING FRANCE WITH GREAT PRINCIPLES
So much has been said about France's unreadiness for the war that it is easy for those who do not know what the real situation was to suppose that the French were something akin to fools. For twenty centuries the Germans had been swarming over the Rhine in preying, ravaging hordes, and France had been beating them back to save her national life. That they would swarm again, more insolent and more rapacious than ever after their triumph of 1870, was not to be doubted. Everyone in France who had t
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XII ON THE EVE OF WAR
XII ON THE EVE OF WAR
In the first days of July, 1914, divisional maneuvers were held as usual in Lorraine. Castelnau and Foch reviewed the troops, known throughout the army as "the division of iron." A young captain, recently assigned from the School of War to a regiment of Hussars forming part of the Twentieth army corps, wrote to his parents on July 5 an account of the maneuvers in which he had just taken part. He said that "the presence of these two eminent men gave a great interest" to the events he described. A
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XIII THE BATTLE OF LORRAINE
XIII THE BATTLE OF LORRAINE
What is known as the battle of Lorraine began at the declaration of war and lasted till August 26—though the major part of it was fought in the last six of those days. I shall not go into details about it here, except to recall that it was in this fighting that General Castelnau lost his oldest son, stricken almost at the father's side. A German military telegram intercepted on August 27 said: "On no account make known to our armies of the west [that is to say, the right wing, in Belgium] the ch
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XIV THE FIRST VICTORY AT THE MARNE
XIV THE FIRST VICTORY AT THE MARNE
It was Saturday, August 29, 1914, when General Foch went to Machault to take command of the various units he was to weld into the Ninth army. On the Tuesday following (September 1) Joffre was quartered with his general staff at the little old town of Bar-sur-Aube, fifty miles south of Châlons, and he had then determined the limits to which he would permit the retreat of his armies. If a stand could be taken and an offensive launched further north than the Aube River, it should be done; but in no
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XV SENT NORTH TO SAVE THE CHANNEL PORTS
XV SENT NORTH TO SAVE THE CHANNEL PORTS
Germany's plan to enter France by the east gate, in Lorraine, was frustrated with the aid of Foch. Her plan to smash through the center of the armies on the Marne was frustrated, with the very special aid of Foch. Blocked in both these moves, there was just one other for Germany to make, then, on the western front. And on September 14, Joffre, instead of celebrating the victory on the Marne, was deep in plans to forestall an advance upon the Channel ports, and began issuing orders for the transf
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XVI THE SUPREME COMMANDER OF THE ALLIED ARMIES
XVI THE SUPREME COMMANDER OF THE ALLIED ARMIES
After his position in the first section of the General Staff had been made independent of age limits, General Foch was relieved (for the autumn and winter at least, during which time no operations of importance were expected) of active command of a group of armies; and at once began the organization of a bureau devoted to the study of great military questions affecting not the French lines alone but those of France's allies. General Pétain--Marshal Haig--General Foch--General Pershing At first t
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XVII BRINGING GERMANY TO ITS KNEES
XVII BRINGING GERMANY TO ITS KNEES
Faith in the ability of Foch to lead us all to victory was, however, not to endure without its grave tests. The German drive of March 21 was checked by his co-ordination of Allied forces. But checking the enemy just before he reached the key of the Channel ports was not defeating him; preventing him from driving a wedge between the British and French armies was only diverting him to another point of attack. He was desperate—that enemy! He knew that he must win a decisive victory soon, or see his
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XVIII DURING THE ARMISTICE AND AFTER
XVIII DURING THE ARMISTICE AND AFTER
When the French army rode into Metz, Foch was not at its head. There may or there may not be another man who could and would have foregone that satisfaction; but certainly there are not many. It does not seem probable that he avoided the occasion; although it would be like him to take advantage of some good excuse for absence if he thought there was one of his generals who specially deserved and desired the honor of that triumphant entry into reclaimed Metz. The attitude of Foch toward praise an
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