The New Zealand Times TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1926. “MARSHAL FOCH’S ANGER”
The hem or .the united command that won me Great War is angry. His indignation is to his credit. The measure of that credit is the immense discredit of those who accused him of spdSking disparagingly of the British army which moved under his orders in the great battles which forced the enemy to ask for armistice. The charge has not only wounded the Marshal, but has amazed him. In the face of his soldierly appreciation of the British armies, in spite of his patriotically fervent recognition of the services to France of those armies, he was accused of saying from his high place, the highest in the soldiership of the world, something to their disparagement. With feelings wounded and patriotism hurt, he has penned an article in defence of his position. He had been attacked, some time before this Armistice Day controversy which has driven him into print, by Marshal Haig’s biographers, intent on securing something of the credit wholly assigned by public opinion to the man who held the united Allied command in the final series of victories. We can well understand why both marshals kept silence about this biography. But in this later controversy none of the obvious reasons for this reticence were applicable. The great Frenchman accordingly put pen to paper without hesitation. And first he speaks of the impossibility of his saying anything whatever to the disparagement of the British forces, or to lessening the mighty service they did to his country. For this he appeals to his frequent pilgrimages to the sepulchres of the glorious men of those forces who fell in battle. Such a visit, he declares, he paid on the eve of the day he was credited with the aspersions of the British armies, which have hurt hiqi and amazed him. Those who have read his wonderful foreword to the late Mar-, shal French’s book— “l9l4” —will have been as amazed at this charge, and as hurt as-he was. In all military history there is not such a magnificent eulogy of great soldiering as is contained in this capable, brilliant, and most sincere foreword. After a masterly sketch of the “race for the sea,” omitting nothing of the military detail necessary for fullest comprehension, he stood in enthusiastic, respectful admiration, of the prowess which, without hope of reinforcement, withstood the tremendous, constantly reinforced, and superiorly-armed enemy, and remained master of the ground. That admiration of the British soldiers and their intrepid leaders he poured out in terms which will make the memory of Ypres immortal. About the final strategy, the great Marshal in this protest puts into its right perspective. The great plan of constant attack at many points successively of the tremendously strong German line was his. The details, included great battles, necessarily under the orders of the local commanderis. In these Marshal Fbch declares that often he preferred the plans of his comrade, Marshal Haig, to his own. He has thus not only vindicated himself, but done full justice to the Marshal who commanded the British armies in their final crushing of the enemy’s prolonged resistance.
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New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12623, 7 December 1926, Page 6
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527The New Zealand Times TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1926. “MARSHAL FOCH’S ANGER” New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12623, 7 December 1926, Page 6
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