Meanwhile Lord Curzon in the House of Lords was saying: "The strategic control ought to be invested in a single brain. We have suffered grievously from want of this. In these circumstances, if a single direction was required, it could only be by a Frenchman; and if a Frenchman-by General Foch.' Lord French declared that Foch was the greatest leader the war had produced. Lord Crewe, though he spoke for the Opposition Party in the British Parliament, admitted that "there was no officer in the French army more admired or more trusted by the British troops than General Foch." Best of all the rank and file of British soldiery remembered how splendidly Foch had helped them when they were hard-pressed during the two long battles of Ypres, how he had flung French troops into their exhausted lines at the psychological moments. They had no fear that he would sacrifice British soldiers to save the French, or give up the Channel ports to strengthen the defense of the southern portion of France and thus expose London to long-range gunnery. While the Germans were spending themselves in a series of drives which pushed one salient after another into the Allied lines, Foch was content to defend his positions stubbornly, and make preparations for the moment when he should strike with all his might. Their high-water mark was brought about by the Germans in early June, 1918, when they reached the river just beyond Chateau Thierry. The rest of June passed without an important gain of territory for either side. Stalemate seemed to have returned, though the fighting had taken on all the fury of desperation. Foch's patient waiting for the moment when his preparations should be complete, quite misled the Germans. Their newspapers declared that the French reserves had all been used up in stopping the various German offensives. They knew his teachings and his characteristic strategy, and only on this basis could they understand his refraining from attack. On July 15th the Germans struck their last offensive blow, near Chateau Thierry. General Gouraud with French and American detachments held down their gains to trifling dimensions. Then, while they were still off balance spent by the force of their own blow, Foch launched his decisive counter-attack. Using the armies, of General Mangin and General Degoutte as a battering-ram he burst into the German lines from Soissons to Chateau Thierry for an average gain of five miles. This was on July 18th. That day was presently seen to have been the beginning of the end of the war. The German retreat began within a week, -an orderly retreat, covered by energetic counter attacks, but nevertheless a hopeless retreat which was never allowed to slow down and stabilize itself in "prepared" positions, but continually beaten back further and further. Early in August, when the world had begun to rejoice in glad fore-knowledge of ultimate victory, the French Government conferred the greatest military honor it possesses upon General Foch. On August 7th he was decreed a Marshal of France by the President of the French Republic. Soon the Germans sued for peace. That was October 4th. A little more than a month later-November 11th-the armistice was signed. On November 25th Foch rode through liberated Strasbourg at the head of horizon-blue French columns marching toward the Rhine, where they were to remain for that "war after the war'' with recalcitrant, self-bankrupted Germany, until at last a peace with victory could be firmly imposed, five years and more later. The labors of Marshal Foch did not end at the Armistice. Perhaps, when the history of the last few years can be written with full knowledge, it will be seen that his services to the French nation since November 11, 1918, have surpassed anything previous. He has been in Poland and Czecho-Slovakia strengthening France's Allies with counsel and the inspira tion of his personality. And throughout he has sat on the right hand, so to speak, of successive Premiers and Presidents, to guide their foreign policy safely through post-war storms. He is an old man now, but vigorous, athletic and alert, with quiet blue eyes that can still flash fire upon occasion, but a little broken by age and sorrow. He lost his only son, Germain Foch, in the mighty struggle. One of his daughters also is widowed. The lovely old gray manor house at Trefeunteuniou still beckons to this lover of the peaceful countryside, this hater of politics and shams and cities,-but the old, joyous, family circle is not so joyous now. He returns there when he can to his memories. There some day he will retire full of years and honors to round out his splendid, studious, dutiful life with meditation and prayer. The world will remember him with unstinting admiration. He has nobly played his part. He has lived up to his maxim: "Do what you ought, come what may." AUTHORITIES The Journal of Royal Artillery, Woolwich, England, Aug. 1921; Fortnightly Review June, 1920; Revue Militaire Generale, Paris, December 1920; Foch: Winner of the War, 1920 (Captain X.) Reymond Recouly; Marshal Ferdinand Foch by A. Hilliard Aldridge, 1919 and various periodicals of that year. |