Ferdinand Foch

Marshal of France Ferdinand Foch, OM, GCB, (October 2, 1851 – March 20, 1929) was a French soldier. He rose to be commander of the Allied armies during World War I.

Early life

Foch was born in Tarbes, France as the son of a civil servant from Provence. He attended school in Tarbes, Rodez, and the Jesuit College in St. Etienne. His brother was later a Jesuit and this may initially have hindered Foch's rise through the ranks of the French Army (since the Republican government of France was anti-clerical).

Foch enlisted in the French 4th Infantry Regiment in 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War and decided to stay in the army after the war. In 1871 Foch entered the École Polytechnique and received his commission as a Lieutenant in the 24th Artillery Regiment in 1873, despite not having the time to complete his course due to the shortage of junior officers. He rose through the ranks, eventually reaching the rank of Captain before entering the Staff College in 1885. In 1895 he was to return to the College as an instructor and it is for his work here that he was later acclaimed as "the most original military thinker of his generation".Michael Carver (editor), The War Lords: Military Commanders of the Twentieth Century, (Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1976), p. 123. ISBN 0297770845

He published his thinking on military doctrine, which heavily focussed on the offensive, in the books "Des Principes de la Guerre" ("On the Principles of War") in 1903, and "De la Conduite de la Guerre" ("On the Conduct of War") in 1904. These were later to form a basis of Plan XVII, the French strategy for a future war with Germany that would bring France close to defeat in 1914.

Foch continued his initially slow rise through the ranks, being promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1898. Thereafter his career accelerated and he returned to command in 1901, when he was posted to a regiment. He was promoted to become a Colonel in 1903, Brigadier General (Général de Brigade) in 1907, Major General (Général de Division) in 1911 and Lieutenant General (Général de corps d’Armée) in 1913. He returned to the Staff College as Commandant from 1907–1911, before taking command of XX^e Corps at Nancy in 1913.

Foch and the Great War

On the outbreak of the war Foch was in command of XX Corps, part of the Second Army of General de Castelnau. On August 14 the corps advanced, taking heavy casualties, towards the Sarrebourg-Morhange line. The defeat of XV Corps to its right forced it into retreat, however. Foch acquitted himself well here and managed to cover the withdrawal to Nancy and the Charmes Gap and managed to counter-attack and prevent the Germans from crossing the Meurthe.

He was then selected to command the newly formed Ninth Army which he was to command during the Battle of the Marne and the Race to the Sea. With his Chief of Staff Maxime Weygand Foch managed to do this while the whole French Army was in full retreat. Only a week after taking command of 9th Army he was forced to fight a series of defensive actions to prevent a German breakthrough. It was then that he spoke the famous words: "I am hard pressed on my right; my centre is giving way; situation excellent; I am attacking.". His counter-attack was an implementation of the theories he had developed during his staff college days and succeeded in stopping the German advance. Foch received further reinforcements from the Fifth Army and, following another attack on his army, counter-attacked again on the Marne. The Germans dug in before eventually retreating. He had been instrumental in stopping the great retreat and stabilising the Allied position.

Foch's successes gained him a further promotion on October 4 when he was appointed Deputy Commander-in-Chief with responsibility for the northern section of front. When the Germans attacked on October 13 they narrowly failed to break through the British and French lines. They tried again at the end of the month during the First Battle of Ypres, this time suffering terrible casualties. Foch had again succeeded in co-ordinating a defence and winning against the odds. In October 1914 he was appointed to joint commander in chief with General Joffre. In 1915 he conducted the Artois Offensive, and in 1916 the Battle of the Somme. He was strongly criticised for his tactics and the heavy casualties that were suffered by the Allied armies during these battles, and was removed from command together with General Joffre and sent to command in Italy.

Just a few months later, after the failure of General Nivelle, he was recalled and promoted to Chief of the General Staff under General Petain.

On March 26 1918 Foch was appointed Allied Supreme Commander with the title of Généralissime ("supreme General") with the job of co-ordinating the activities of the Allied armies. Despite being surprised by the German offensive on the Chemin des Dames, Foch prevented the advance of the German forces during the great Spring Offensive of 1918 at the Second Battle of Marne in July 1918. On 6 August 1918 Foch was made Marshal of France and after Poland. Along with the British commander Marshal Haig, Foch planned the Grand Offensive of September 26, 1918 which led to the defeat of Germany. Foch accepted the German surrender in November. On the day of the armistice he was elected to the Académie des Sciences, and ten days later unanimously elected to the Académie française.

Paris Peace Conference

In January 1919 at the Paris Peace Conference Foch presented a memorandum to the Allied plenipotentiaries in which he stated:

Henceforward the Rhine ought to be the Western military frontier of the German countries. Henceforward Germany ought to be deprived of all entrance and assembling ground, that is, of all territorial sovereignty on the left bank of the river, that is, of all facilities for invading quickly, as in 1914, Belgium, Luxembourg, for reaching the coast of the North Sea and threatening the United Kingdom, for outflanking the natural defences of France, the Rhine, Meuse, conquering the Northern Provinces and entering the Parisian area.Ernest R. Troughton, It's Happening Again (John Gifford, 1944), p. 17.

In a subsequent memorandum Foch argued that the Allies should take full advantage of their victory by permanently weakening German power in order to prevent her from threatening France again:

What the people of Germany fear the most is a renewal of hostilities since, this time, Germany would be the field of battle and the scene of the consequent devastation. This makes it impossible for the yet unstable German Government to reject any demand on our part if it is clearly formulated. The Entente, in its present favourable military situation, can obtain acceptance of any peace conditions it may put forward provided that they are presented without much delay. All it is has to do is to decide what they shall be.Ibid.

However the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George and the American President Wilson objected to the detachment of the Rhineland from Germany but agreed to Allied military occupation for fifteen years, which Foch thought insufficient to protect France.

Foch considered the Treaty of Versailles to be "a capitulation, a treason".Anthony Adamthwaite, Grandeur and Misery: France's Bid for Power in Europe, 1914-40 (Hodder Arnold, 1995), p. 57. As the treaty was being signed Foch said: "This is not peace. It is an armistice for 20 years".Ruth Henig, Versailles and After, 1919-33 (Routledge, 1995), p. 52.

Post-war career

For his advice during the Polish-Bolshevik War of 1920 as well as pressure on Germany during the Great Poland Uprising he was awarded with the title of Marshal of Poland in 1923. He was also made a British Field Marshal in 1919. A statue of Foch was set up at the Compiègne Armistice site when the area was converted into a national memorial. This statue was the one item left undisturbed by the Nazis when they sought to obliterate the area in order to deprive the French of any reminder of the 1918 Armistice, with the intent that the statue see nothing but a wasteland.

He died on 20 March 1929 and was interred in Les Invalides, next to Napoleon and many other famous French soldiers and officers.

The aircraft carrier Foch was named in his honour, as well as an early district of Gdynia, Poland. The latter was, however, renamed by the Communist government after World War II.

Notes