New-York tribune., 1918-11-21
Marshal Petain
By Frank II. Sinoona.
lCopyrlght. Iels. Ncw york u,-,,..,..

which would have been to awoI,.. OOne
prise and even criticism in tbo SUI
world The defender of verdun rn "a''s
tionably earned the right to the Sses S;s..
ton already bestowed upon the v;o,~~ 'S''ps
the First and Second Marne. Focb. ,s JosoS
and Petain are clearly the pres,a;~ ,1vu'e
French soldiers of this war. and nnu4' ,''.,'sM
nation can claim for any three os S'asf
generals equal glory. u rs
Before Verdun Petain had 49,
reputation. His offensive in Cbar~ ~,ns'
in 1915 was the first considerah,p
tory of the Allies after the ;n;t;,, I sc'
mad passed to them It had onlv ''s 1--WE
results and was in no sense ds.;S IVA
'ot it yielded more than 25Ooo n~
oners, more than a hundred c,,rs pa, s
brought the first real sense Of vi.. alu
to Paris and to London. '0'F
But Verdun was the great tes+ VI,
the new marshal reached tho NJ
citadel the Germans had taken nowS~
mont advanced nearly seven miles NV
were almost at the last line Of aofo~.' aS
10 organize his defence Petain bsd e.,
to counter attack with the elements a..
were just beginning to arrive whilo L
created line Of resistance. He had ~
restore order out Of confusion. to rec,o
ate confidence, sorely shaken. x;tr.
ton as critical as that which confror,sa
Foch when he took command last snr;s~
confronted P6tain in the last days y
February, 1916.
All this Petain did. Within s,n
days his new army could accent \.
watehword, "They shall not pass sm
make it their own. From February q
onward the German advance was sm
and in the aggregate inconsidersus
Petaln's strategy was to hold tbe Ger.
mans, selling to them such parcels q,
ground as he could spare, at tremendop,
cost to them, until the Somre offensive
could be prepared, until the great 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
Plcardy compelled the Kaiser to aban-
don the gamble in Lorraine. The second
bid for a decision in the West was
wrecked on the hills which have later
witnessed the first successes of our own
young army. And when the danger was
passed Petain organized two offensves
which in a few hours deprived the Ger
mans Of all they had spent months 10
acquire at a cost Of hundreds Of thou
sands of casualties. Nothing in French
history is finer than the story of Verdun.
and Petain was the soul as well as the
brain Of that epic
After Verdun the politicians chose
lieutenant of Petain's to replace Joffre,
grown old and weary. II was an un-
happy choice, and Nivelle's great failure
at the Aisne in April and May of 1917
for the moment shook the morale of the
French army and the French nation.
Once more France turned to Petain and
TINS time he repeated his Verdun achieve
ment on vast scale. He reorganized
the entire French army. He restored
confidence. discipline; he transformed the
situation in such fashion that in few
months he was able to win new victory
at Eerdun and a shining success at the
Aisne in taking Fort Malmaison.
The full fruits of his labors were re
vealed in the fashion in which the French
army was rushed to the rescue Of the sit
uation in Picardy last spring, after the
defeat of the Fifth British Army ana
while the Germans threatened to separate
the French from the British. A inertea
than that of Fayolle's forces can hardly
be recalled in all this war From thai
moment onward Petain suffered by the +.
rapid expansion Of the reputation o.
Foch. That the Allied commander III
chief was the greater soldier will prob
ably be the judgment of history; that be
owes much to the loyal and competent
aid Of Petain is unmistakable. Ina.
they worked in complete harmony at al
times is tribute 10 the patriotism o.
each
1t may be that Foch, Joffre and Petaln
will be the only marshals of France Gre
ated by this war. If there are additions
one may hope to see included the name
of Castelnau, who saved Nancy and mace
the Marne victory possible i'll 1914, "nO
dared to risk stand at Verdun a1lei
the first German successes, and selec'e'
Petain to go TO the imperilled front anu
defend the Meuse fortress. And II eaS'
telnau receives his baton, an equal cia'A'
may, be urged for Franchet d'Espefes'
whose army defeated that Of Bulow q
the First Marine and shared in the ia~'
long campaigns in France. oups''
quently it was d'Esperey who won US
recent victory of the Cerna-Vardar i,
the Orient and smashed Bulgaria aH"