All the world mourns Marshal Foch, the greatest of modern
soldiers, whose name will be imperishably connected with the victory of the Allies in the War. He had the genius to see his profession steadily and to see it whole. The war of his day never gave him such opportunities as were seized by a Marlborough or a Napoleon ; most of the time from 1914-18 the " frozen " military ,conditions forbade the strategy of manoeuvre. Yet Foch applied a passion of thought to his problems and it was by this that he triumphed. He never doubted that moral superiority to the enemy was the precious secret. He would quote " There's nothing either right or wrong, but thinking makes it so." . He was not responsible for the exaggerated aggressiveness of the French assaults early in the War, but when his time came he proved that his student mind had learned everything from the mistakes then made. His com- bination of careful planning and vehemence in execution was perfect. It is gratifying . to remember that his British colleagues recognized his pre-eminence and that when Lord Milner proposed that Marshal Foch should command most of the .Allied front Lord Haig insisted: that the new command should include the whole front..
* * * *
Previous page
