General Foch.

Levin Daily Chronicle, 2 April 1918, Page 3

General Foch.

THE NEW GENERALISSIMO

Tho familiar portraits of General Foch, tho new Generalissimo on the west front, show him as a man of only middle age, but in September, IJIO, the noted French leader was specially exempted from tho law which requires "generals of division" to retire fiom active service at the age of to. This was done in recognition of two specially notable services pnor to the Battle of the Sommc. The first of these was in the Battle of tho jViarne, when General Foch, at la Frero Champenoise, carried out a brilliant and daring strategic movement which helped to win the victory. He knew the enemy to be stronger than he on Doth his i lallls -s, although in the centre he could hold with equal numbers. Thereupon lie took the bold risk and withdrew his left ilank, leaving only a screcn which he hoped would deceive the enemy, and brought round this additional force to his right ilank. His daring was rewarded. The enemy was deceived, and General Foch's centre and right were strong enough to drive m the German left Hank before the enemy had had time to find out what he was up to. The second feat was that now historic race to the sea which saved Calais and in which General Foch, with fev. er forces —for instance, at one time six army corps to thirteen —always managed to get ahead of the enemy, btcp by step, by skilful manoeuvring, holding gaps temporarily with territorials while active corps were being rushed up behind them, he finally reached Calais first. Before tho war General loch was best known as a French theoretician of tactics and as head of the Staff College; his war service has confirmed the judgment of his friends that he is a great strategist. His scrvice at the Battle of the Sommc, in which he commanded the French army south of tho Somme, was his last as an active general in command of troops. The whole operation by the French was notable for its cleanness of execution, rapidity, and economy of men. He has the reputation among those who know his methods ot being scrupulously careful in obtaining information, and his exactitude in this matter, coupled with swiftness in judgment and decision, is the sccret of his suceess as a strategist and tactician. Foch has in the past been sneered at as a "professor," a deep student of Caesar and Napoleon, a writer of books on war and especially on strategy, with a remarkably intimate interest in the knowledge of artillery. He has outlived the sneers. Though he fought in tlio Franco-Prussian war, in 1870, hollas defeated time also to the extent

that he is remarkably active. lie is credited with understanding the human clement in the French, army better than

any other living man. As a lecturer in the War College for a long, period lie passed through his hands a very large number of the officers in the army, and not onyl got to know them well, but imparted to them a lasting understanding of his own strong character. Like J'offre, Pau, and Gallieni, Focli comes from the South of France, near the Pyrenees. He was born at the Bay of Biscay in 1851, and is the same age as do Castelnau and Durail, and a year older than Joffre.