Word: foch
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When the German offensive at the Marne concentrated unexpectedly upon Le Petit Morin, the heights which General Foch had been assigned to defend with a pitiably small force, his brilliant "intuitive" maneuver of the 42nd Division from his left to his centre forced the enemy back and proved a paramount element in the French victory. Marshal Joseph Jacques Joffre, who had long realized the special capabilities of Ferdinand Foch, took this opportunity to send him as "Deputy Commander-in-Chief" to put himself in the closest touch with the British and Belgian commanders. His success in conciliating all with whom...
...concrete illustration Marshal Foch recalled his conference with General Pershing and General Haig on the eve of the final Allied Grand Offensive (1918). General Pershing said that his men were insufficiently trained and tried. "How can I throw them into a big offensive?" Sir Douglas (now Earl) Haig insisted that his army was "shot to pieces," asked, "How can we advance...
Commenting, last week, Marshal Foch continued: "I could have given a formal order [to Generals Pershing and Haig] but that is not how I worked. People obey badly when they obey against their will. I always preferred the role of counselor to that of chief. I preferred to convince everyone that my plan was possible, realizable and to give everyone a desire to carry it through...
Though Ferdinand Foch was all but unknown in the U. S. prior to the World War, he enlisted as a private in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, and later, after attending the War College, became a professor there (1894) renowned for the soundness of his matter and the brilliant originality of his presentation. He developed a veritable "school" of French officers who gave unusual attention to that evanescent factor which was to prove so vital when the War came: morale...
...Victory equals Will," wrote General Foch at that time. "Victory goes always to those who deserve it by the greater force of will. . . . A battle won is a battle in which one will not acknowledge oneself beaten...