Ferdinand Foch

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Ferdinand Foch
October 2, 1851–March 20, 1929
Place of birth	Tarbes, France
Place of death	Paris, France
Allegiance	France
Years of service	1871–1929
Rank	Marshal of France (1918), British Field Marshal (1919), Marshal of Poland (1920)
Battles/wars	Battle of the Frontiers, Spring Offensive, Meuse-Argonne Offensive
Awards	Order of Merit Virtuti Militari

Ferdinand Foch OM GCB (October 2, 1851 – March 20, 1929) was a French soldier, military educator and author credited for possessing "the most original and subtle mind in the French Army."^[1] He served as general in the French Army during World War I and made Marshal of France in its final year, 1918.

He was chosen as supreme commander of the allied armies during World War I, on March 26, 1918, five days after the start of the Spring Offensive, the final attempt by Germany to win the war. He served until November 11, 1918, when he accepted the German Surrender.

He advocated harsh peace terms that would make Germany unable to ever pose a threat to France again. His word after the Treaty of Versailles, “This is not a peace. It is an armistice for 20 years”, would prove prophetic.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Foch and World War I 3 Paris Peace Conference 4 Post-war career 5 Writing 6 Notes 7 External links

[edit] Early life

Foch was born in Tarbes, France as the son of a civil servant from Provence. He attended school in Tarbes, Rodez, and the Jesuit College in St. Etienne. His brother was later a Jesuit and this may initially have hindered Foch's rise through the ranks of the French Army (since the Republican government of France was anti-clerical).

Foch enlisted in the French 4th Infantry Regiment, in 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War, and decided to stay in the army after the war. In 1871, Foch entered the École Polytechnique and received his commission as a Lieutenant in the 24th Artillery Regiment, in 1873, despite not having the time to complete his course due to the shortage of junior officers. He rose through the ranks, eventually reaching the rank of Captain before entering the Staff College in 1885. In 1895, he was to return to the College as an instructor and it is for his work here that he was later acclaimed as "the most original military thinker of his generation".^[2] Turning to history for inspiration, Foch became known for his critical analyses of the Franco-Prussian and Napoleonic campaigns and of their relevance to the pursuit of military operations in the new century. His re-examination of France's painful defeat in 1870 was among the first of its kind.

In his career as instructor Foch created renewed interest in French military history, inspired confidence in a new class of French officers, and brought about "the intellectual and moral regeneration of the French Army".^[3] His thinking on military doctrine was shaped by the unshakeable belief, uncommon at the time, that "the will to conquer is the first condition of victory." Collections of his lectures, which reintroduced the concept of the offensive to French military theory, were published in the volumes "Des Principes de la Guerre" ("On the Principles of War") in 1903, and "De la Conduite de la Guerre" ("On the Conduct of War") in 1904. Sadly, while Foch advised "qualification and discernment" in military strategy and cautioned that "recklessness in attack could lead to prohibitive losses and ultimate failure,"^[4] his concepts, distorted and misunderstood by contemporaries, became associated with the perverse offensive doctrines (l'offensive à outrance) of his successors. To Foch's regret, the cult of the offensive came to dominate military circles, and Foch's books were even cited in the development of Plan XVII, the disastrous French strategy for war with Germany that brought France so close to ruin in 1914.

Foch continued his initially slow rise through the ranks, being promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1898. Thereafter, his career accelerated and he returned to command in 1901, when he was posted to a regiment. He was promoted to become a Colonel in 1903, Brigadier General (Général de Brigade) in 1907, Major General (Général de Division) in 1911 and Lieutenant General (Général de corps d’Armée) in 1913. He returned to the Staff College as Commandant from 1907–1911, before taking command of XX^e Corps at Nancy in 1913.

[edit] Foch and World War I

On the outbreak of the war, Foch was in command of XX Corps, part of the Second Army of General de Castelnau. On August 14 the corps advanced, taking heavy casualties, towards the Sarrebourg-Morhange line. The defeat of XV Corps to its right forced it into retreat, however. Foch acquitted himself well here and managed to cover the withdrawal to Nancy and the Charmes Gap and managed to counter-attack and prevent the Germans from crossing the Meurthe.

He was then selected to command the newly formed Ninth Army, which he was to command during the Battle of the Marne and the Race to the Sea. With his Chief of Staff Maxime Weygand, Foch managed to do this while the whole French Army was in full retreat. Only a week after taking command of 9th Army, he was forced to fight a series of defensive actions to prevent a German breakthrough. It was then that he spoke the famous words: "I am hard pressed on my right; my centre is giving way; situation excellent; I am attacking." His counter-attack was an implementation of the theories he had developed during his staff college days and succeeded in stopping the German advance. Foch received further reinforcements from the Fifth Army and, following another attack on his army, counter-attacked again on the Marne. The Germans dug in before eventually retreating. He had been instrumental in stopping the great retreat and stabilising the Allied position.

Foch's successes gained him a further promotion, on October 4, when he was appointed Deputy Commander-in-Chief with responsibility for the northern section of front. When the Germans attacked on October 13, they narrowly failed to break through the British and French lines. They tried again at the end of the month during the First Battle of Ypres; this time suffering terrible casualties. Foch had again succeeded in co-ordinating a defence and winning against the odds. In October 1914, he was appointed to joint commander in chief with General Joffre. In 1915, he conducted the Artois Offensive, and, in 1916, the Battle of the Somme. He was strongly criticised for his tactics and the heavy casualties that were suffered by the Allied armies during these battles, and was removed from command, together with General Joffre, and sent to command in Italy.

Just a few months later, after the failure of General Nivelle, he was recalled and promoted to Chief of the General Staff under General Petain.

On March 26, 1918, Foch was appointed Allied Supreme Commander with the title of Généralissime ("supreme General") with the job of co-ordinating the activities of the Allied armies. Despite being surprised by the German offensive on the Chemin des Dames, Foch prevented the advance of the German forces during the great Spring Offensive of 1918 at the Second Battle of Marne in July 1918. On 6 August 1918, Foch was made Marshal of France. Along with the British commander Marshal Haig, Foch planned the Grand Offensive, opening on September 26, 1918, which led to the defeat of Germany. Foch accepted the German surrender in November. On the day of the armistice, he was elected to the Académie des Sciences. Ten days later, he was unanimously elected to the Académie française.

[edit] Paris Peace Conference

In January 1919, at the Paris Peace Conference Foch presented a memorandum to the Allied plenipotentiaries in which he stated:

Henceforward the Rhine ought to be the Western military frontier of the German countries. Henceforward Germany ought to be deprived of all entrance and assembling ground, that is, of all territorial sovereignty on the left bank of the river, that is, of all facilities for invading quickly, as in 1914, Belgium, Luxembourg, for reaching the coast of the North Sea and threatening the United Kingdom, for outflanking the natural defences of France, the Rhine, Meuse, conquering the Northern Provinces and entering the Parisian area.^[5]

In a subsequent memorandum, Foch argued that the Allies should take full advantage of their victory by permanently weakening German power in order to prevent her from threatening France again:

What the people of Germany fear the most is a renewal of hostilities since, this time, Germany would be the field of battle and the scene of the consequent devastation. This makes it impossible for the yet unstable German Government to reject any demand on our part if it is clearly formulated. The Entente, in its present favourable military situation, can obtain acceptance of any peace conditions it may put forward provided that they are presented without much delay. All it is has to do is to decide what they shall be.^[6]

However the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George and the American President Wilson objected to the detachment of the Rhineland from Germany, but agreed to Allied military occupation for fifteen years, which Foch thought insufficient to protect France.

Foch considered the Treaty of Versailles to be "a capitulation, a treason".^[7] As the treaty was being signed Foch said: "This is not peace. It is an armistice for 20 years".^[8]

[edit] Post-war career

Foch was made a British Field Marshal in 1919, and, for his advice during the Polish-Bolshevik War of 1920, as well as his pressure on Germany during the Great Poland Uprising, he was awarded with the title of Marshal of Poland in 1923.

On November 1, 1921 Foch was in Kansas City to take part in the groundbreaking ceremony for the Liberty Memorial that was being constructed there. Also present that day were Lieutenant General Baron Jacques of Belgium, Admiral David Beatty of Great Britain, General Armando Diaz of Italy and General John J. Pershing of the United States. One of the main speakers was Vice President Calvin Coolidge of the United States. In 1935 bas-reliefs of Foch, Jacques, Diaz and Pershing by sculptor Walker Hancock were added to the memorial.

Foch died on March 20th, 1929, and was interred in Les Invalides, next to Napoleon and many other famous French soldiers and officers.

A statue of Foch was set up at the Compiègne Armistice site when the area was converted into a national memorial. This statue was the one item left undisturbed by the Germans following their defeat of France in June, 1940. Following the signing of France's surrender on June 21, the Germans ravaged the area surrounding the railway car in which both the 1918 and 1940 surrenders had taken place. The statue was left standing, to view nothing but a wasteland.

A heavy cruiser and an aircraft carrier were named in his honour, as well as an early district of Gdynia, Poland. The latter was, however, renamed by the Communist government after World War II. A street in Paris is named after him, Avenue Foch, one in Grenoble, Boulevard Marechal Foch, as are Mariscal Foch in Quito, Ecuador and Marshall Foch Street in the Lakeview neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana. Fochville in South Africa was also named in his honor.

[edit] Writing

• Des Principes de la Guerre (On the Principles of War) (1903)
• De la Conduite de la Guerre (On the Conduct of War) (1904)
• Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de la guerre 1914-1918 (The Memoirs of Marshal Foch) (Posthumous, 1931)

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Shirer, p. 81
2. ^ Michael Carver (editor), The War Lords: Military Commanders of the Twentieth Century, (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1976), p. 123. ISBN 0-297-77084-5
3. ^ Shirer, p. 81
4. ^ Shirer, p. 80
5. ^ Ernest R. Troughton, It's Happening Again (John Gifford, 1944), p. 17.
6. ^ Ibid.
7. ^ Anthony Adamthwaite, Grandeur and Misery: France's Bid for Power in Europe, 1914-40 (Hodder Arnold, 1995), p. 57.
8. ^ Ruth Henig, Versailles and After, 1919-33 (Routledge, 1995), p. 52.

[edit] External links

• Foch and the Cult of the Offensive
• Biography on FirstWorldWar.com
• Foch's Biography in French on the Immortals page of the Académie française
• Foch the Man, by Clara E. Laughlin, available freely at Project Gutenberg

Preceded by: Melchior de Vogüé

Seat 18 Académie française 1918–1929

Succeeded by: Philippe Pétain

	Marshals of Poland
	Józef Piłsudski • Ferdinand Foch • Edward Rydz-Śmigły • Michał Rola-Żymierski • Konstanty Rokossowski • Marian Spychalski