MARSHAL FOCH

Evening Star, Issue 20130, 21 March 1929, Page 9

MARSHAL FOCH

• LAST MOiEIITS A PEACEFUL PASSING FAMILY AT THE BEDSIDE Cress Association—By To'egraph—Copyright BARIS, March 20. (Received March 21, at 12.50 p.m.) Marshal Foch died in the evening of a lovely spring day, in the presence of Ids wife and daughters. He had surmounted so ninny crises recently that the final collapse Jett a sense of .stupefaction. lie had a violent allack of hi catblesMiLVs at 5 o'clock. The doctors and a priest were summoned, and the latter administered extreme unction while Marshal Foch was unconscious. He. died apparently without pain.

The closing of ilie shutters was the ’r.-i intimation that the long struggle had ended. The nows of Hie Marshal's death spread most rapidly, and caller* and flowers began .arriving iu a few minutes. M. Briand was speaking in Hie Chamber of Deputies when the news was received. M. .Poincare announced the event in a lew heartfelt words, which were supported by the President of the Chamber, and the silling was immediately adjourned Marshal For h died in a simple bed'Kim not more luxuriously furnished than a barrack room. Hie only relief to the plain walls was the combined Hags of the Allied nations worked into a banner. Occasionally during his hist hours the Marshal rai-cd his arm and lovingly caressed the banner. Marshal Foeh’s only sou was killed iu the war. Of his two married daughters one lost her husband on the name day that Marshal FoclTs sun was killed. The other is the wile of Colonel Fournier, and she has two sons and two daughters. The oldest sou received the right to change his name to Toiir-nier-Foch in order io perpetuate Marshal Koch's" name. At the end of the war Marshal Foch was financially poorer Hum at the beginning. He did not- own the house m which he spent his last years. It belongs io the French Government, and will he Hie home of succeeding army chiefs. "While oilier Allied nations awarded titles, lands, and money to their leading generals, Marshal Foch’s only compensation was the knowledge that Fiance was saved. His country home was bought out of his wife's dowry.— Australian Press Association. * LORD ALLEHBY'S TRIBUTE GREATEST GENERAL GF OUR THE Er«,« Association—By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON; March 20. (Received March 2.1, at 11 a.m.) Viscount, Allenby, in a tribute_ to Marshal Foch, in which he described the leader of the Allies as the ‘•greatest general of our time, said: ‘‘ He will probably go down in history as the equal of the greatest soldiers I he world has ever known.”—Australian Press

His Death Announced Allied War-Time Commander A Great Soldier CrM* Association —By Telegraph—Copyright. PARIS, March 20. (Received March 21, at 10 a.m.) Marshal Foch is dead.—Australian Press Association-United Ser-

MARSKAL FOOD'S CAREER In the little Pyrenean town of Tar bos the unpretending house still stands, unless pulled down quite recently, in which Ferdinand .Foch was Horn on October 2,185 L His father, Bertram! Jules Napoleon Foch, came of old Pyrenean stock, and entered the Civil Service instead of going on with the old family business of wool dealing, rising in 1850 to the position of; secre-tary-general of tire prefecture in the department of the Hautos Alps. Ho married Marie Sophie Jacqueline Dupre, eldest daughter of an officer in the armies of Napoleon, who gave him the Cross of the Legion of Honour after the Spanish War in 180 S-9. Four* children wore bom of the marriage—■ Fugcme, Gabriel (who became a lawyer), Ferdinand (ultimately Hie uiarshall, and Germain (who entered the Jesuit order). II was a. Catholic family, Whiic captain of the 10th Regiment of Arf.i'iJeiy, stationed at Rennes, Ferdinand married Julie Bienveuue, about .1878, and finis became owner of an old estafe at Ploujeam ‘

• near Morlaix. where lie subsequently 'spent, most of his leaves of absence. MI is father died in 188 D. and his mother j three years later. J 1 is only son, Gcrj main, was killed early in the Great | War, in Belgium, whilst with bis regiinient. tin; i:iJst. Infantry'. Hi.s two | daughters married soldier officers. MIS rPRIIIXGING. Koeir.s school 1 ile was not. marked bv any striking feature. Me is described as a .studious and hard-work-ing lad. rather serious for 1 1 is age. as will be understood from Urn lact that at twelve be was reading Thiers’ ‘ History of the Consulate and the Empire.’ One of his masters, noting hi.s mathematical turn of mind, prophesied that he would get to the Ecole Polyleehniqnc. .It was at Rode/., then at Polignan, that he went, to school, and .subsequently to the Jesuit College at St. Etienne. There his aptitude' for .study and seienee so impressed his teachers that it was decided he should enter the Eeole Polytoehnique, ami as a preliminary thereto he was placed in I ho famous * College of Si. Clement , where in his first year he won the Grand Prix do Sagesse by the unanimous vote ot his fellow-students. 'Tie JTaneo-Prnssian War interrupted hi.s si tidies. Mo joined the army for the, period of the war, anil was posted to the 4th Infantry, but the armistice came before lie saw arty lighting, and ho went back to St. Clement to finish his studies, getting on so well that he passed the’ examinations and was admitted to the Ecole Polytechniqiie in J?7l. Me was “Mo. 7(5 ” when lie entered. At the end ol his first year his rating moved up to “No. 47.” Inst a.s ho was starting liis second year at the school an appeal was made (o polvtechnicians to enter the Artil-lr-rv School a 1 Fontainebleau, as officers wore nrfent.lv needed to restore the depleted ~armv to strength. Foch was cue of those who responded, and alter , about; ion months’ study he lelt it (m, October. 1871) as a second lieutenant. MILITARY CAREER. Mo was assigned to the '24th Regiment of Artillery. After two years he j took a course at the Cavalry School at Saumur, and in 1878 was made captain of the 10th Regiment of Artillery. Being summoned to Paris by the technical section of the War Ministry, he was one of those chosen for the LcoJc da Guerre in 1885, remaining there for two years, when lie was put on to the staff"of a division that was quartered at Montpellier. In 1891 he went to Paris as a major attached to the General Staff. In 1885 he was made a&soci- _ ate professor ot military liisloi.t, : strategy, and applied tactics at the Ecolc Snperienrc do Guerre, ami a year later was promoted to a lieutenant-colonelcy j and made full protessor. It was bv his lectures that . rocli first became" famous. Me pleaded with his pupils to learn how to think. A

kernel sentence of Lis own indicates liis teaching generally:Really and truly, ‘ to command ’ has never meant ‘to be mysterious’ but to let at any rate one’s immediate subordinates understand the thought underlying the order.” That was Napoleons plan, in direct opposition to ti - German doctrine that General Hcadqartcrs is an absolute autocracy, planning operations as an architect plans a house, and being quite unable to modify them if something breaks down. When Foch vacated his teaching post in 1900 it was freely prophesied that he would rise. And he did. Step after step he went up rapidly in soldier rank, and in 1907 Clemenceau appointed him to the ipost .of director-general of the Fcolc de Guerre. This school was not going well, owing to the introduction of politics into the army, and Foch was installed to reorganise. After four years’ service as director Foch left the school to take command qf the 13th Division at Chnumont. In 1912 he as general of division was appointed to the charge of the Bth Army Corps. , and in 1913 lie was made head of the 20th Corps at Nancy. It was a great proof of faith in him that he .should be made head of this picked corps on the frontier where fighting must almost necessarily begin. On July 18, 1914, he left Nancv to spend a fortnight’s leave on his estate in Brittany, accompanied by all his family, including life two sous-iu-law, both soldiers.JTbis holiday leave is mentioned as another proof Ciai France was not planning war. Within a week Austria sent to Serbia the Note that directly brought on the war. and Foch sped back to Nancy on July 26. FIIS FIGHTING SERVICE. When war was declared Foch’s 20th Corps was stationed at Nancy, forming part of the Second Army under General Castclnau. On August 19, 1914, this force Was thrown into Lorraine, where an offensive was set up to defend Nancy. Then Fod) wa.s called to headquarters. and Joffre entrusted him with the mission of forming a new army, the Ninth, to bridge, the gap between the Fourth and Fifth. Armies. 1 n _ Septembers of 1011 a. clover and audacious manoeuvre on his part turned the Battle of the Manic from a defeat into a victory. .Military experts write of his as a real stroke of genius. He foresaw that his right and centre might have tt> give way, so when the fighting was at T(s fiercest lie withdrew the 42nd Division unobserved, and ordered it to attack the Germans’ flank just when tbev were pushing through. His message to headquarters is said to have been: '' lly centre yielding, my right retreating,' excellent situation. [ am attacking.” It must bslve been interpreted as a gigantic bluff. But it succeeded. 'When one of bis generals objected that, bis troops were tired out, Foch replied: “ The Germans arc still more so—you will attack.” The effect of the sudden appearance from nowhere of the 42nd Division has been likened to that produced by MacDonald's column at Wagram. The unexpected apparition upset the German command. The Germans had already gone into billets for the night, intoxicated with their triumph, when the 42nd Division was let loose, and. to quote Foch; ‘‘Wo did let them have it hot. It wa.s all that we could do. It might succeed; it might Jail; and it succeeded.” The surprised Germans retired, quite disconcerted. The_ point is that Foch foresaw that possibility, and calculated on the moral effect of the surprise. This and other successes so increased Foch’s reputation that Joffre handed to him the task of co-ordinating the heterogeneous .troops that wore hurriedly concentrated to prevent the Gormans from gaining command of the Flemish coastline. Foch executed this order successfully, putting; himself into cordial relations with "Sir John French and King Albert, and making himself the soul of the Battle ol Flanders that cheeked the enemy in his race for the sea so far ns 1914 was concerned. thus saving England bombardment from the south side of the Channel. and thwarting the Kaiser’s plan to control that waterway with In's submarines. Foch held the post of commander of the group of northern armies for two years, and thus presided over the Artois offensives of May and September, 1915. and at the Battle of the Somme in the summer of 1916. Seemingly bis course was set for high military command. and so it really was, but be had to suffer an injustice and stand aside for a while as a result of political interference. M, Briiiiid; harassed by the incessant attacks of political opponents, and' obliged to remodel bis Cabinet, consented to make a change in the chief leadership of the army. Joffre. was superseded by Nivolle. The reason given was that a younger man was needed. ’Unit, of course, aimed at Foch as well as Joffre. Foch was sixty-five years of age. It was insinuated here ami there that he was worn out and ill. He was within an ace of lt<*a;g fo"nd to ret ho. and had to accept the alternative of being made head of a hom'd for the investigation of interallied military questions. This shunting could not last. In May. 1917. General Retain replaced General Nivellc as commander-in-chief, and Foch stepped into Potnin’s place I as chief of staff. As such he became the technical adviser of the Government. The great question was whether the_ German thrust could be held up until America could act upon her declaration of war. To aid Italy was deemed of vital consequence, and Foch is credited with designing the plans whereby the Anstro-German advance was definitely stopped on the Piave and the plateau of Asiago. As a groat and probably decisive battle was impending, an interallied war I council was established at Versailles, Foch presiding. In March of 191.8 Ln- ! dendorff launched his great offensive, i and on the 2(3th of the same month Foch was chosen to co-ordinate operations between the British, and the French—an elevation which made him actually generalissimo of the French. ■ British, Belgian, and American forces I on the western front. That title was formally conferred before long. In I August he was created a marshal of 1 France, and he also became a British field marshal. The co-operation that he established enabled the Allies to stop the Germans at Pinions, win the Battle of the Aisne, check the July offensive, and follow up the general retreat in I November with such energy that the j Germans asked for an armistice and accepted the conditions of peace that were submitted by Foch. WHY BERLIN WAS NOT TAKEN. I Many persons the world over have wondered why Foch stopped at the left hank of the Rhine instead of marching to Berlin. The reply comes from Foch himself in an interview with a correspondent of ‘ The Times ’ in July of 1928. The correspondent writes: — “ I could not 'help remarking that it seemed a pity that lie stopped when apparently lie was on tlu eye of the most tremendous military victory in history. But he had his reasons for , wanting the war to end that year. I ‘And why should we go on fighting?’ ho added. “ J wanted to get to the Rhine. It would have taken me three j mouths to fight my way over encumbered and broken roads against an ' enemy wlm still knew bow to defend | himself By the terms of the Armistice I got there without further effort

and without losses, at a bound, so ,to speak, in three weeks.’ And in order to make as sure as ho could of getting the severe terms of capitulation accepted. Marshal Foch, at the same time as the armistice pourparlers began, sent out an order b his army commanders to maintain and even precipitate their actions. ‘I appeal,’ the order ran, ‘to tbo energy and initiative of the commanders-in-chief and of their armies to render decisive the‘results obtained.’ As a French military historian has well said, the spirit, of Foch energised the whole of the Allied armies. The Rhine, I could see,loomed large in all _ the Marshal's thoughts and calculations. He quoted 1 words that Moltke had used _about it, and he evidently regarded it as the key of the military situation between France and Germany. ‘ Remember, loo,” be said, ‘‘that the German armies could have defended themselves there obstinately.’ ‘ls a river, then, such an obstacle still?’ I asked. ‘That river is,’ ho retorted. ‘ What about aeroplanes and long-range guns?’ I inquired. Ml faut transporter la masse de I’armee.’ be said.” ■ When Marshal Foch visited London lie received a splendid welcome, ami later received the freedom of the city,, and was made a British field-marshal.