Omaha daily bee., 1918-10-18
Marshal Ferdinand Foch
New York Times.

sage to Marshal joffre on the eve of Fere-
Champenoise usually appears: my center
yields, my right falls back. Situation excellent
| attack" 1t sounds too much like Ney TO re-
fleet truly the genius of Foch, and little like
one of his models, Desaix, who, arriving on the
field of Marengo when the Austrians were
flushed with an Elusive triumph, led his three
regiments against the enemys center, eXcla,m,
ing: There is yet time to win another battle
At Fere- Champenoise Foch transferred the
Forty-second division of the Ninth army from
one end of his weakened line to the other and
routed the Germans, whom the unexpected al
version took by surprise The great french
strategist is never reckless Calculation is in
all his strokes, although he seems to appeal to
the god of chance sometimes. But in that re-
spect he resembles Napoleon, who said when
Goher asked him how he could defend his axiom
that 1T is always the greater number which de-
feats the less" when he had won victories with
small armies:
Even then it was always the inferior force
which was defeated by the superior. When
with small body of men was in the presence
of large one, collecting my little band. tell
like lightning on one of the wings of the hostile
army and defeated it
That is what Foch did at Fere- Champenoise.
He repeated the strategem when he shattered
the enemy's Scissors Rheims salient in the west
on July IS and the days following; and, having
thing ever since from Flanders to the Cham
payne. He is the unusual combination of often
sive and defensive fighter, equally adroit in both
capacities. Like Lee. he can hold his line while
the enemy makes costly assaults upon it, bldlng
his time for counter-o offensive; and, like Jack
son, he can turn up with division where it is
least expected and smite the enemy's flank CIV
ing him no time to(bring up re-enforcements.
There is no longer a doubt of Foch's SUI
periority, both in strategy and tactics, to the
German commanders opposed to him. 1t was
demonstrated most brilliantly when he antici-
pated the German assault on the night of the
national fete, July H. 1918. He read the pur
pose of Ludendor to strike when all France
was in celebration. The Germans reasoned that
the French would be caught mapping. Foch's
intelligence department had appraised him of
the enemy's preparations for major movement.
He calculated that the blow would fall upon the
night of the national fete, and by capturing
prisoners he learned that 10 minutes after mid
night was the time set Foch's artillery opened
fire first with terrible barrage. The Germans,
nevertheless, came on, TO find the first line
lightly held, to find the second line stone wall.
There was no surprise after all-except for the
Germans And four days later Foch launched
his counter-offensive. which has been kept up
unntermittently on the whole front, first here
and now there-the most wonderful battle ever
fought by great commander, the scale tremen
dous, the results prodigious. Today the fate OF
the German army in the west trembles in the
balance.
a superman this Frenchman it the term can
be applied to any human being; and yet he is
not consciously great. At heart and in manner
he is the same man who was known in the class
room as teacher of the art of war not many
year sago Happily he has never been pc
dant; he has been able to change his formulas,
to adjust himself to new conditions of warfare.
If his officers have learned a great deal in the
war, so has he. He could now discard much
that he used to teach at the Ecolc de Guerre,
where his pupils, some of them now in high
command, worshiped him. If there was any
danger of Foch's rusting as professor of war
it ceased when the command OF the Thirteenth
division at Chaumont was given him in 1911,
Promoted to the head of the Eighth corps he
was later transferred to the responsible post at
Nancy, headquarters of the Twentieth corps.
There he was at the outbreak OF war, and his
friends knew that he was destined to play
leading part i'll the conflict upon which the saliva
ton Of France depended.
No one knew Fochs value better than his
predecessor in the supreme command. 1t was
Joffre who selected Foch to foil the determined
effort of the German high command to get to
the sea in the autumn of 1914. There began
that association with British generals, French,
Smith Dorrien, Haig, Byng, Rawlinson. Alenby
and others, which ripened into esteem for their
CillNlCHSy anu ldlll III tISlI luStWOI lulHCSS.
They all came to admire Foch, officer and gen.
tleman and comrade. He never failed them in
emergencies. they never failed him. They were
for him to man when the question of the uni
fed command had to be settled. They could
serve under him, knowing that he was not only
Frances best bat consuminate master of the
art of war
Foch, son of an obscure administrator at
Tarbes, never had visions of great destiny,
and in the simplicity of his life he has not been
different from the body of his countrymen. He
has always nourished ideals, he knows and be-
lieves in ethical values, he is soundly patriotic
and he is devout He does not pray as much as
Stonewall Jackson did, but believes in the
efficacy of prayer. He says that he has been
strengthened by it in ordeals, As soldier he
has been sincere student of psychology He
thinks that good cause is more than half the
battle He believes in sedulously cultivating
the morale of an army. He regards the German
will to victory" as barren phrase. The formi-
dable soldier is the man of soul and magma
ton, in Fochs view, and as the French army
has both soul and imagination, he holds that it
is inyincible.