ANNIVERSARY OF GERMAN AMIENS OFFENSIVE

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 128, 3 June 1919, Page 8

ANNIVERSARY OF GERMAN AMIENS OFFENSIVE

Marshal Foch was reminded on. 21st March that that day was tho anniversary of the beginning of the great Gorman, offensive toward Amiens. Ho was asked by Jules Sauerwein, of the Matin, to ex ; l>lnin by what methods ho had turned the offensive into a German, defeat. Ho replied : "You aek me to tell you much in a few words. Victories are won by science. That is true, but also by faith. When one has faith, one does not .retire. Ono stops tho enemy whqro ho duels him. You toll me that I gave victory to Franco. It was our admirable soldiers who gave it. I have but ono merit, that of never despairing." Tho -writer asked tho Marshal if hia strategic science was a doctrine that could be taught or if it was rather noi) that faculty "to divine and improvise—called genius." "Strategic science," said Marshal Foch, "can bo acquired, but it is not a. group of formulas or a sot o£ principles. It is a knowledge which the chief must make part of himself so- that it will guide all his decisions. This mental discipline can bo gamed by a study of history and by a study of concrete examples. It must leave tho mind of the commander so open that ho acts on accurate information and not on preconceived ideas and hypotheses. "Jiut tho most brilliant qualities of intelligence are nothing without tho will to victory. The battle won is the battle in which ono refuses to admit one's <self beaten, because the army is to tho chief what the sword is to tho soldier. Its value lies in the hand that wields it."