Tuesday, N ovem ber 2 9 , 1921 .............. ""' — ■■ LIFE STUDY TO BEATGERMANY Foch Began at 20 to Work for Downfall of Teutonic Power. FLEXÎBILITY IS HIS MAXi^ France in Debt to G eneralissim o of A llie d A rm ie s fo r H is M ilita r y In- s tru c tio n — Keen S tu d e n t o f Napo leon’ s C am paigns and o f German S ta ff M ethods, He Accepted N either, b u t Pruned and G ra fte d the T w o T ogether— Sense o f P ro p rie ty . "My cen ter gives way, my right re cedes; the situation is excellen t; I shall a tta ck ." The w rite r of th is m essage to his com m anding officer was e ith e r a crim inal b rag g art or one of the g rea test of generals, depending w hether his a t tack succeeded or failed. If it failed, a country would have clam ored for th e life of a general who sent his com- _ m and to certain destruction. If it succeeded, his dispatch should rank w ith other historical battle m essages, such as “Don’t give up the ship, “JBngland expects every m an to do his duty," and “ We have met th e enemy and they a re ours.” T he a tta c k did not fail. The au th o r of th is dispatch had said several y e a rs b efo re: “A b a ttle won is a b a ttle in which one refuses to adm it th a t one is beaten.” A fter w riting the dispatch he guve the order to a tta ck , then, while his men w ere going forw ard, lie took a young staff officer for a walk and discussed m etallurgy and economics. H is men pushed back the enemy a t a vital point in the line, the enemy w ith drew and P a ris was saved. The m essage w as sent during the first b a ttle of the M arne in Septem ber, W14. It w as w ritten by F erdinand Foch, m arshal of F rance, then a gen e ral c o m m a n d in g /th e N inth French arm y holding the allied center. Second B a ttle of the Marne. T he offensive begun by Foch a t La Fere-C'ham penoise rep re sen ts th e tu rn ing point of th< first b a ttle of the M arne. But the allied generalissim o w as in a sim ilar situ atio n on the eve ning of Ju ly 17, 1918, while a second b a ttle of the M arne was being fought. At th a t tim e lie m ight have p a ra phrased his e a rlie r m essage by w rit ing : "My left in F la n d ers gives way, my cen ter recedes, P a ris and the chan nel p o rts are m enaced. T he situation Is ea.eeiipjjt. I will a tta c k .” ✓ And a tta c k be did on tfie m orning of the 18th w ith two French and two Am erican divisions. H e conriiihetj to UUtil U i? faiye to him : and askeu hiu: tC StCp, aim m s a tta c k s did not stop until 10:59 a. m., Novem ber 11, 1918. And had the arm istice failed, he had yet an o th er and more disconcerting a tta c k planned in every Retail for Novem ber 14, in which French and Am erican divisions would have sw ept past Metz and into Lor raine. Since lie w as tw enty. M arshal Foch had been w orking for the defeat of Germ any. Of the m any generals who achieved prom inence during the w ar, Foch and H indenburg w ere m ilitary school teach ers before 1914. H ere com parison ends. H indenburg w as a retired officer d u r ing the w ar. W hen the G erm ans moved tow ard P a ris the R ussians sw ept into P russia, and the German high comm and was in a n ear panic. Then some one rem em bered the griz zled Individual w ith a close-cropped head and generous m ustache who for year a fte r year at the staff college had an n ihilated the enem y in a paper cam paign in the M asorian lake region, then invaded by the R ussians. H in denburg was summ oned to B eilin. He refreshed him self w ith his lecture notes, took comm and of the eastern forces, and the M asurian lakes cam paign w as won fo r the G erm ans. H in denburg’» m ilitary rep u tatio n rests upon th is one cam paign th a t had been a G erm an general staff exercise for years before the war. i- F le x ib ility Foch’s M axim . W ith Foch, on the o th er hand, it was one of his principles th a t w ar against a skillful enemy cannot he waged suc cessfully according to blue print alone. H e had been teaching for years to young French officers, candidates for staff positions, th at, above uli else, m odern w a rfa re dem ands flexibility. P la n s go wrong, and su rp rises occur constantly which m ust be m et as they arise. T hese w ere the principles he set forth In his w orks on the "A rt of W ar,” as Foch p refe rs to term what Is called m ore often m ilitary science. Like o th er F rench officers, he s a tu ra te d him self w ith N apoleon’s cam paigns, but In addition he had been a p ain stak in g student of G erm an staff m ethods. As a resu lt he accepted n eith er Napoleon nor th e Germ an gen eral staff slavishly, but ra th e r pruned and g rafted the tw o together. The fundam ental of his principles of w ar w as the insistence upon m orale, th a t as much intelligence and spirit are needed to carry out orders as to Issue them . It Is doubtful w hether the French arm y should be m ore gratefu l to Foch for his services during the w ar or for his work as an In stru cto r a t the Su perior School of W ir during the years previous to 1914. H e w as the first Frenchm an, and probably the first m ilitary student of im portance, who was able to dissect th e G erm an opera tions in th e w ar of 1870. Until Foch w ent to the Ecole ’e G uerre in 1894 (as a teacher. :t s im possible for PAGB T H U S * French officers to study the German operations of 1870 calmly. H onest a tte m p ts had been made, in fact the Ecole de G uerre w as established ju st a fte r th e F ranco-P russian w ar as a p a rt of the reorganization of the French arm y, w ith a view to discov- i ering ju s t w hat happened in 1870. [ B u f until Foch w as detailed to the school In 1804 it w as ju st like trying to find out th e m anner in which Mr. W illiam P atterso n had been assaulted. , it w as too soon Rafter the w ar, for the h e a rts of both officers and stu d en ts were too heavy with sadness over the loss of A lsace-Lorraine to investigate the facts dispassionately. Foch’s A nti-G erm an S trategy. H is Sense of P ro p rie ty . A Business Service Station M e lik e to tlunk of till« In stitution as a b u sin ess service station — w h ere a n y o n e can come for advice a n d ______ • By SIR G O D FR EY P. CO LLIN S G. Foch w as the first man t o fill the F rench w ith hope th a t F rench general- ship m ight be a m atch fo r Germ an. As calmly, us m athem atically and ag cold- bloodedly as the G erm an general staff itself, Foch set to work to analyze for his pupils G erm an m ilitary science. H e arrived a t a conclusion ju st the op- posite to w hat m ight be expected. In- stead of declaring th a t in the next w ar F ran ce m ust l»eat Germ any a t her own game, he em phasized th a t F rench strateg y m ust be the opposite of Ger- man, th a t iron-clad plans m ust give to tle ja b ilitj. These principles had an enorm ous i,n >n I- rench staff <.♦ «, work i i during effect upon the w ar, for th e young students, who were filled w ith enthusiasm over Foch’s m axim s laid down in the School of W ar in the late nineties, w ere the division com m anders and the corps and arm y staff officers, oi th e W orld w ar. T h at F ran ce alone of the allies had w ell-trained and active-m inded staff officers In 1914 is largely due to Foch. M arshal Foch w as born in Tarbeg, October 2, 1851. Boyish enthusiasm over the cam paigns of Napoleon—he l,a,l m « « ™ « T l " e r s oi the C onsulate and the E m pire before he was tw e lv e -fille d him w ith the am- bition to e n te r the arm y. The year previous to the F ranco-P russian w ar he was studying a t St. C lem ent’s, a Je su it eollege in Metz, w here m ore candidates for arm y com issions were tau g h t than at any o th er school in F rance. He enlisted as a p riv ate in the F o u rth regim ent of infan try which never got into action. A lsace-Lorraine lost and wi