Manchester Democrat., 1921-11-30
MARSHAL FOCH IN IOWA.

MARSHAL EOCH IN lUWAs
Last Friday the great commander
of the allied armies journeyed to
Mason City to call on Colonel Hanford
MacNider, National Commander of the
American Legion. His special train
was stopped for few minutes in Du-
buQue where thousands of people
greeted him with joyous expressions
OF welcome.
During the more than four years OF
terrible warfare there were many bat
ties of the first magnitude, but the
defense of Verdun and the two bat
ties of the Marne were the only
battles that can be called great vic
tories for the allies.
Marshal Joffre was in command OF
the allies when the first battle of the
Marne was fought, and he is generally
credited with having halted and thrown
back with appalling losses the mad on
rush of the German armies for Paris.
But General Foch's military ability
and foresight contributed largely to
the result of that battle, and when the
old Marshal was no longer able to hold
IN under the strain of war, General
Foch was the choice of the French ma
ton as his successor He was also
the choice of the allies as commander
in-chief of all of their armies.
The second battle of the Marne was
the decisive battle of the war. When
that battle commenced the chances
rather favored the Germans. Their
High Command had carefully planned
the campaign and prepared for bat
tie that was to decide the long strug-
gle in their favor. At the hour agreed
anon they struck, and the allied armies
on a front of about thirty miles, be-
tween the cities OF Rheims and Sois-
sons, recoled, but the allied lines to the
east of Rheims and to the west or
SCISSORS held fast. The city OF Paris,
the objective point of the German
armies, was about 70 miles to the
southwark of these battle lines. That
was the zero hour; that was the time
when Foch and Ludendor6 measured
swords with each other. Ludendorf
continued to attack and on that 30
mile front, Foch continued to fall back
nursing his army but making deadly
use of his artillery. He continued to
slowly retreat until he reached the
Marne river. The writer used large
map and twice each day while that
hattie was in progress he stuck pins
into the map so that he could see at a
glance the position of the contending
armies. 1t was no part of Foch's plan
to resist too doggedly on that 80 mile
front. But it was his plan to reduce
the length Of that battle frnot saS
q The row of pins in that map were in
about the shape Of two-bushel grain
sack when the Germans reached the
Aarne, and when they crossed that
river they suffered fearful losses from
we'll directed artillery fire on their
pontoon bridges. Up to that time the
allied casualties were slight and thew
had not lost single gun. Ludendorif
mad an immense army in that sack,
put. 1t was part of his plan to cut the
allied army in two and he thought that
ne was succeeding. He had to depend
Apon single line of railroad to
bring up his supplies and that was
near the west side of the sack shaped
piece of ground into which he had
plunged great army. Then came
the crucial stroke. If Foch could |
get poss sion of the railrc@d ct Sois- |
sons, Ludendorfr wou,1 fad himself
with a great army 80 niles from
Foch decided 10 cut the
railroad at scissors, and the English
weakened his part of the
line and sent eight divisions to assist
in the movement The all important
railroad line was cut There was
nothing left for the German army to do
but to retreat. And that retreat was
very costly in life and hugely so in
material. 1t was much to the credit
OF the German commander that he
was able to save any part of his army.
That battle was easily the beginning
of the end of the great world war
Writing about Marshal Foch called
TO mind the following lines:
To every field flower is born,
Some radiant as shining star:
The moon drives fast nights spectral
car;
The sun the chargers of the morn.
TO every commonwealth there comes
A man of prophecy and fate,
A warrior true to save the state.
Such men are landmarks of their |
race
Whose glory time can not efface.