Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-06
BY CoNIMANDANT BUGNET.

BY CONIMANDANT BUGNET.
Written exclusively for The Star and the
North American Newspaper Alliance.
In the Chateau de Mondement, the
pivotal point of the 9th Army'S action
in the first Battle of the Marine, which
Marshal Foch was explaining to us on
the ground he was at home. He knew
all its corners. He was attracted by
one, the angle of the northern side,
where, near the battered, but still stand
ing tower, one had a view Of the whole
panorama of the battle.
II was here with Humbert; with our
field glasses we could follow the progress
of the contest" Pointing his stick, he
indicated Toulon- la Montague in the
distance; and, almost at our feet IN the
marsh of Saint-Gond, the ditch OF Petlt
NORM, that one would never suspect;
Broussy, Rouves; Dyes, which was SO
sternly defended; and the ridge OF
Poirier, from which so many German
attacks were launched.
Lives Struggle Over Again.
Before the panorama the marshal
stood in meditation. He lived the
struggle over again.
"Weygand what time did the attack
begin?" The marshal speaks in stac-
cato phrases as if he were giving orders.
He moves from one point to another,
searches the horizon with his glance;
the working of his thoughts betrays
itself by the abrupt, unfinished, but
powerfully suggestive, disjointed phrases.
A single word calls up whole situa-
ton. A mere gesture explains the bat
tie strategy. Every moment the mar
shall appeals to the unfailing memory
of his C. G. s.: "Weygand, was it not
Blondelat's Brigade which fell back on
Allemant?"
Did you not have six German army
corps against you?" Yes, that is
So"
Regards Feats as Simple Tasks.
So far from feeling at all vain about
his early feats, he seems to regard all
that he did as perfectly simple.
"On the Marine? Yes, that went de-
Gently; We put up by no means bad
show"
Yet his modesty is not complete self
effacement, and when necessary he can
claim that he was of some Importance,
even though he makes the claim in his
characteristic manner: I'VE did not
make too many blunders!"
The marshal was no more disturbed
by the memory of that drama, OF which
he was the hero, than he was long ago
by the drama itself. With BETTING
gravity, he contemplated its fiuctua-
him prefer the satisfaction of the re-
suits achieved to the joy of victory for
its own sake Instead of surveying
himself with complacency, he analysed
himself consciously.
On this pedestal of Mondement the
marshal appeared before US in the
stature of a giant. We looked upon him
in no ordinary light.
Wife Plies Him With Questions.
Amid the silence of this Enclosure,
once filled with heroic combat, an al
most physical discomfort sweeps over
you from the testimony borne by the
sun and enforced by its rays, which are
as fierce and oppressive as in those days
of 1914.
With no attempt to hide the emotion
magnifed by her pardonable pride,
Nine. Foch, anxious to learn and Curl
Gus to see all she could, piled him with
questions.
1t was no time to go down to the
famous marshes of Saint-Gond, a long
and narrow belt of half-dried ponds
covered by treacherous grasses, in
which one sinks once off the track of
a few causeways which run across it.
On the banks of this depression on
the 9th and 7th of September, at the
price of unparalleled efforts, the 9th
Corps held its ground against all as
saults. We went slowly along, with
pauses memorable for some feat of
heroiSm or painful memory.
Near one dip in the ground he said:
whole battalions plunged into this in
the belief that they had found shelter.
1t was furnace. They melted like
wax"
Bridge Guarded at all Costs.
Again, after crossing a tiny bridge,
Of l0nf TNl1 l1n
told us, THAT was the only crossing.
We had to guard that at all costs.
Corpses piled up in heaps, witness to
the severity of the struggle. 1t became
impossible"
Then at Alnizeux, "a battalion took
this village by storm, but had to ADAM
don it." So at Bannes he explained
That's where Gen. Besse, with his ar
tillery, stopped the onset of the Ger
man guard"
All these feats of arms, even the dis
astrous ones, deserved a tribute OF re-
spect. '"Those sacrifices were not use
less, any more than the others which
were occurring in the very same hours
along the whole front"
Yet at the actual time of occurrence
they might have seemed so, since on
all sides the situation looked hopeless
the obstacle had been crossed, the
D enemy shelled the rampant of Monde
i Inent and threatened to overthrow it or
p to turn its flank through the open door
r. at Fere-C hampenoise. But Gen. Foch,
with unshakable tenacity, never lost
heart, because he willed not to lose
? heart, when beaten I said to myself,
bsI shall be beaten for four days or five
sadays if necessary, but shall always re-
2 main in being"
D, That was exactly the paramount