GENERAL HOCH

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 165, 2 April 1918, Page 4

GENERAL HOCH

« —. — — "MOST FORMIDABLE 1 OF FIGHTING iIEN.?' In a scries of article;; published in the London "Timei." a,t the end of June, 1915, entitled "U'lie Achievement'of France," the writer, discussing the Battle of tho M lirne, remarked: ". . . While Mauikoury pressed upon the iearguardsi, Sir John French and General d'Espcrey checked and turned -Von Kluckl's main advance, with the result that it itell back ,and uncovered Von Billow's right flank. This gave General Foch the occasion for the most sensational movement in the battle. Ho was fighting on the southern rim of the plateau of Sezanne against Von Bulow ;and the right of tho Saxon command. By a bold movement, begun in the darkness of a stormy night, ho thrust a wedge between Von Bulow and thei Saxons, and for two days fought a battle on two fronts—a feat which had already been achieved by our [British] 4th Division at Lo Cateau and was to be repeated months later by tho Russians st Przasnyßz. The doings of Foch miruirr these days, when bio drovo tiio Prussian Guard into tho marshes of St. Gond and lilt deep into tho Saxon ranks, are already classiu. The most brilliant military writer in Europe revealed himself as the mort formidable of fighting men." Amd again during the first battle of Ypues, "it was Foch's (task to make his scanty reserves go a.s far as possible, placing a division here and a division there, as the st'ross of battle altered. Only under the most brilliant leading could half a million men between Albert and tho sea have beaten off at least three times their number."