The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1918-11-21
Coined Phrase.


All this Petain did. Within a few
days his new army could accept ms
watchword, They shall not pass"
make it their own. From Feb, 26 on
ward the German advance was slow ana
In the aggregate inconsiderable, re-
tain's strategy was to hold the Ger
mans, selling to them such parcels OF
ground as he could spare at tremend-
Gus cost to them, until the Somme o.
~fensive could be prepared, until the
Il eat new British army could get ready
for it's first offensive Of real magnitude.
All this was done and thereafter YER
dun became the graveyard OF German
hopes to the hour when the danger in
Picardy compelled the kaiser to aban-
don the gamble in Lorraine. The Sec
ond. bid for a decision in the west was
wrecked on the hills which have later
witnessed the first success OF our W
young army. And when the danger was
passed, Petain organized two offensives,
which in a few hours deprived the Ger
mans Of all they had spent months to
acquire at a cost of hundreds OF thou
sands of casualties. Nothing in French
history is finer than the story Of Yer
dun, and Petain was the soul as well as
the brain. of that epic.
After Verdun the politicians chose a
lieutenant Of Petain's. to replace Jotfre,
glowp old and weary, 1t was an unhap-
pye choice and Nivelle's great failure at
the Aisne in April and May Of 1917 for
the moment shook the morale Of the
Once mere France turned TO Petain and
this time he repeated his Verdun
achievement on a vast scale, lie re
organized the entire French army. he
restored confidence and discipline; he
transformed the situation In such fash
/ ion that in a few months he was able
to win a new victory at Verdun and a
shining victory at the Aisne In taking
Fort Malmaison.
The full fruits Of his labor were re-
vealed in the fashion M which the
French army was rushed to the rescue
Of the situation in Picardy last spring,
after the defeat Of the Fifth British
army and while the Germans threatened
to separate the French from the Brit
ish. A finer feat than Of Fayoles can
hardly be recalled in all his war. From
that moment onward Petain suffered
by the rapid expansion of the reputa-
ton Of Foch. That the allied command
er-in-chief was the greater soldier will
probably be the Judgment OF history.
that he owes much to the loyalty and
competency Of Petain is unmistakaDle
That they worked in complete harmony
at all times is a tribute to the patriot
ism Of each.
tain will be the only marshals OF France
created by this war. If there are addi-
tons, n may hope to see included the
name of Castelnau, who saved Nancy
and made the Marine victory possible In
1914, who dared TO risk a stand at Yer
dun after the first German successes
and selected Petain to go to the imper'
lied front and defend the Mouse fort
lress, and II Castelnau receives his
baton an equal claim may be urged for
Franchet D'Esperey, whose army de-
Ifeated that of Bulow at the first Marine
and shared in the later long campaigns
in France. Subsequently 1t was DIES
prey who won recent victory OF the
lVerna- Vardar in the Orient and
smashed Bulgaria and Mittleuropa at
a single blow. There remains Mangin,
the key of the present struggle, who at
Verdun and in all the recent battles,
leonic predecessor, 1.-The bravest of the
brave"
1t is an evidence of how far France
today Is from the other and less splen-
did times, that there Is no longer fear
OF "a man on horseback and no
lFrenChman can hesitate to do honor
to his victorious generals, lest one OF
them seize the opportunity TO repeat the
INapoleonic example no one OF the three
marshals Of France can be suspected
Of the smallest selfish ambition, They
are men OF a different stripe, More
over, when all is said and done, mag
nificent as are the achievements Of the
| soldiers, that of the civilians and re-
passes the glory Of the soldiers. with
out Clemenceau not even Foch could
have saved France and brought the ever
memorable German capitulation at
Senlis.
copyright, 1918, by New York Tribune