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INTERESTING AND PERTINENT TOPICS OF THE DAY SPIRIT OF FOCH IS ALWAYS ATTACK Who would have lK en rash enough to suppose five yiars ago that there was a professor at a military ttillcge in France who was destined to win triumphs on the field of battle beside which the exploits of Cacssr Alexander and Napoleon would seem trifling that he was to move masses of men in victorious battle such as tlie world had never soon gathered together before that the name of Ferdinand Foch was to take its place in the hall of fame with the immortal military geniuses of all time and perhaps provide future generations with material for debating whether he was not the great ¬ est of them all He stands today the greatest figure in the world the most important man a man in whose hands is held the fate of the greater portion of mankind for centuries to come It is Foch who is deciding the destinies of nations in his maplittered room at the allied headquarters in France FranceTHEORY THEORY AND PRACTICE PRACTICEThe The most interesting and striking thing about Ferdinand Foch is that five years ago he was un ¬ known outside of military circles in Fraiice but in those circles was recognized as an authority upon the art of war He was the teacher whose fate it was to prove that his theories were correct The ideas which he once demonstrated on a black blackboanl boanl with a piece of chalk in his hand he now draws over hundreds of miles of battlefield and in his hands are millions of men That Foch should have come to be recognized as the greatest strate gist of the war is all the more amazing In view of the statement so often made that the whole art and practice of war has been changed in the past four years that the Germans were the instructors in the new warfare and that the allies had to sit sithumliiy humliiy tlieir feet and learn That is orily relatively true the underlying principles of war ¬ fare are the same Foch has mastered them and has had the genius to apply them to new and constantly changing conditions conditionsATTACK ATTACK ALWAYS ATTACK ATTACKFoch Foch is the ideal loader in that while his swift movements arc such as to baffle the keenest minds of the enemy the broad principles on which he works are so simple that a child can grasp them They may be summed up in these words The only way to make successful warfare is to attack This was his favorite theory when he was lecturing his classes at the Ecolc Superieure de la Guerre before the war broke out lie had written several military textbooks jnd this idea was constantly presented He wrote To hold positions is to prepare implic ¬ itly for defeat if nothing further is attempted if the offensive is not immediately assumed If an anny is being defeated if it is giving way all along the line there is just one way according to Foch in which victory is to be obtained and that is for the army to take the offensive That is an easy thing to say To do it is the most difficult task a military leader ever undertook and yet Foch has the gift of being able to do it It was by doing it again and again with armies that seemed beaten that he won his present position positionFOCH FOCH AT THE MARNE These facts are made clear in a book by Charles le Goffic called Les Marais de Saint Goud and translated into English under the title of Gen Foch at the Marne The first battle of the Manic goes down in history as Papa Joffres great vic ¬ tory and properly so but it may well be doubted if it would have been the great victory it was had not Foch been able to fill the role he was called upon to assume if he had not been the possessor of that mysterious gift which could inspire beaten j arid retreating men suddenly to stand fast and then to attack The army he commanded at the Marne was forced for three successive days to re ¬ tire and yet each morning it began the day with a new offensive Had Foch himself not been im ¬ bued with the spirit of the offensive and had he not been able to convey this spirit to his anny he would never hare been able to seize like lightning upon a mistake of the enemy and score his great victory I ITHE THE DECISIVE ACTION ACTIONBut But we must aot in praising Foch seem to belittle Joffre for this too was Joffres spirit and his famous order of the day ii which he told the French armies that tliere was to be no further re ¬ treat that the armies that could not advance were to die in their tracks proves it The army Foch commanded was outnumbered but he never lost the will to victory Situation excellent he reported time and again and when the enemy attacks were most vicious he found satisfaction in the reflection that the day was going badly with them elsewhere and that they nought revenge on Foch The move lie made on September 0 which has been called the decisive action which determined the fate of the battle when with his center wavering and his right falling back and with only a part of his left wing retainirig liberty of action he yet used that fragment of his left wiifg to launch an of ¬ fensive that has passed intii history The strategy was nil the inure audacious for when Foch de ¬ termined upon it he did nol know that then was a gap in the enemys line which he could pierce Had there been no gap he would have made one and tlie result been the same for to again iie his own words a battle gained is a battle which one has expected to gain in wliliii one would not admit hinjseff defeated
