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Biography of Ferdinand FochName: Ferdinand FochBirth Date: October 2, 1851 Death Date: March 20, 1929 Place of Birth: Tarbes, France Nationality: French Gender: Male Occupations: army officer, marshall, general Ferdinand Foch The French marshall Ferdinand Foch (1851-1929) was commander in chief of the Allied armies in World War I.Ferdinand Foch was born on Oct. 2, 1851, at Tarbes. His early schooling revealed his "geometrical mind" and mathematical ability. He enlisted in the infantry during the Franco-Prussian War but did not see active service. Resuming his education, he graduated from the École Polytechnique in 1873 and was commissioned a lieutenant in the artillery.By 1894 Foch had become lieutenant colonel and professor of strategy and tactics in the École Supérieure de Guerre (War School). His lectures were published in two volumes: De la conduite de la guerre (1897; Precepts and Judgments) and Des principes de la guerre (1899; Principles of War). Foch's doctrine of massive attack attracted much attention. He stressed both philosophical and material aspects of war and emphasized the importance of morale and the will to win. In 1900 Foch was transferred to …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…induced the German representatives to accept his armistice terms, including occupation of the left bank of the Rhine.Acclaimed by the world after the war, Foch received many honors, including election to the French Academy and to the Academy of Sciences. He bitterly condemned the peace settlement for its failure to detach the left bank of the Rhine from Germany. Foch died in Paris on March 20, 1929, and was interred in the Invalides. Further Reading Valuable memoirs by Raymond Recouly, a friend of Foch, are Foch:His Character and Leadership (trans. 1920) and Foch: My Conversations with the Marshal (trans. 1929). Leading biographies of the marshal are George Grey Aston, The Biography of the Late Marshal Foch (1929) and Basil Henry Liddell Hart, Foch, the Man of Orleans (1932). Another useful work is Cyril Bentham Falls, Marshal Foch (1939). The postwar Rhineland question is explored in Jere C. King, Foch versus Clemenceau: France and German Dismemberment, 1918-1919 (1960). |