The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-03-21
Marshal Foch

On March 25 1918, in the little French town of
Doullens. straddling the cobhle-paved road from
Amens to ArraS came the real turning point of the
World war
There, in dingy sparsely furnished room in the
town hall, surrounded by the noise and hubbub of
armies milling about in semi-panic, and while the
thunder of the ever-advancing German guns could be
heard plainly above the rumble and scufe and clatter
of the street, General Ferdinand Foch he then was
was chosen generalssimo of the allied armies
Today Marshal Foch lies dead at his home in
Paris His dauntesS spirit has been gathered into the
bosom of that select company in Walhala where the
great warriors OF all times supposed to find their
hnal glory And while sorrowing France prepares to
honor the memory Of her dead the allied nations ioin
her in paying tribute to the genius that saved their
cause.
mat Foch had genius there can be no doubt Just
what especial niche history will accord him. century
hence, perhaps, will show but that he will rank high
even now IS assured For it lost cause to ali in
tents and purposes, forlorn hope which the short
grlzzled. deep-eyed war college professor of 65 was
elected to lead that dismal day in Douens and had
he not been great he wouldn't have had chance
Where is Hindenbwg?" German deputy in the
Reichsag had risen to inquire on March 49, And Vice
Chancellor Helfferich had replied
Where s Hndenburg? He stands in the west
ready to strike with the greatest army of all tfe"
And Hndenburg had struck five days later He had
struck blow that crushed Sir Douglas Haigs Fifth
army and left both the British and the French Keeling
groggy as heavyweight just before receiving the
Knockout punch And it looked on that March day as
II nothing in the world could prevent him crashing
right on through to the allies utter humiliation
That Foch was able to prevent a knockout long
enough to reorganze the forces thus suddenly thrust
under his command; that he was able to build I'D
vast reserve army, in which the post of honor, be it
said, deliberately conferred upon the embattled
Yankee doughboy, and that he was able at last to
launch his successful counter-oensive as surprise
against his oncog and apparently invincible enemy
offers convincing proof of his genius.
But to us, somehow, the real greatness of Marshal
Foch lay in his essentially qualities. He loved
people. He loved horses. He loved dogs and flowers
He was not just engineer in charge of a military
machine which moved forward or backward as he
manipulated the levers.
To him his army just a lot of men and boys,
citizens of cozy communities, fathers and fighting
for homes they loved, but had had to give up. His
army had heat and it had soul.
Marshal Foch refused to believe that war is an
exact science like arithmetic Two and two he figured
did not always make four in battle One sometimes
outdd two if what he called the elan"the dash and
spirtwas right and he listed the morale of his fight
ing men among his greatest assets.
With these intangible forces, then, he came up
from behind and won against what just Helfferich
had said was the greatest military machine the world
ever had seen.
Nor it slur against the individual soldiers of the
German army to speak of that army as machine It's
makers deliberately created it such, in the belief
that the war; after ALL is exact science and that the
men who take part in it are mere cogs in great
machine.
About the bier of Foch, the man, therefore, as well
as about the bier of Foch, the soldier the people OF
America join with the people of France in homage