Marshal of France and Field-Marshal of the British Army. General-in-Chief of
the Allied Armies in France, 1918.
EVERY great man who attracts the attention of his fellow-men, does so for
some special reason. His name goes down to history because it is indelibly
recorded in some outstanding period or event.
And for all time Ferdinand Foch will be regarded as the chief agent and the
dominant personality in the final events which led to the defeat of Germany in the
Great War. Though a victor, he was not a conqueror like Caesar or Napoleon.
He was an enemy of war, a defender of his country and of human liberties. And
his distinctive title to glory will be that he did not fight for conquest or enrichment,
but for security and peace. His name will live in France as that of the immortal
hero who brought his country through long periods of depression and despondency
to a national revival. And by the people of our Empire he will always be remem
bered as the inspiring leader who seized upon that quality of the British soldier of
never owning that he was beaten, and by supreme generalship enabled him to repel
the last desperate attacks of the enemy and advance to victory.
It was at the Ecole Supérieure de Guerre in Paris, the military institution
which is the counterpart in France of the English Staff College, that Foch spent
an important part of his career; first as a student, then as an instructor, and
finally as Commandant. During these years he earned a distinguished name by
his brilliant lectures, and by his stimulating influence on the rising generation of
young officer. The essentials of his teaching have been embodied in two standard
works dealing with the principles and conduct of war.
Foch was a student, and at times a critic, of the doctrines of Napoleon. This
strongly influenced him in his insistence that victory in battle depends on two great
moral factorsthe quality of the morale which pervades an army and the personal
influence of its commander. And it is known to everyone how he exemplified
these values in himself, in the strain and struggle of those last few months of war.
Everywhere, through his keen vigilance, his superb handling of each successive
situation, his supreme and radiant confidence in the ultimate issue of events, he
inspired his armies with the fact that no battle would be lost so long as they
refused to think that they were beaten.
Soon after the Battle of the Marne we find Foch in the North, acting as
Deputy" for Joffre and co-ordinating Allied operations in the country around
Ypres. The race to the sea was in full progress, and the terrific struggle had
begun which has been so vividly described in The Battle Book of Ypres."
