Land Sc Water 
August 15, 191 8 
with a particularly stiff broom, and the dust flew up in 
unheard-of quantities Ferdinand Foch mounted ;■ lowly the 
ladder of promotion because he undertook no colonial cam- 
paigns, but remained quietly engaged ri his study and teach- 
ings at home and paid no court to power. 
Foch's life is harmonious in its simple, even development. 
It swells at last into a grand chorus of achievement, which is 
but the logical conclusion of so much preparation. The 
secret of his success is concentration. He has never allowed 
himself to be distracted from his main purpose, which is 
the study of war. Somewhere he has written that one must 
Marshal Foch 
French Official 
Inow a great deal to do even a little on the battle field, which 
is no place for study. And thus he has been constant in his 
' devot on to the gods of battle. He is the great protagonist 
of the French school, and has enshrined his ideas in two or 
three text-books of great beauty of thought and erudition. 
It is often reproached against him that he misjudged 
entirely the trend of war, that he speaks of manoeuvring 
masses as if freedom of movement were still the order of 
battle, and that the principles and practice of Napoleon 
could still be applied to their fullest extent. There is a 
certain truth in this, but it lacks in some essentials. Foch 
believed, undoubtedly, that the Germans would invade 
by the East, that the campaign would be swift with great 
bounds in advance by the victorious army, and that light 
and mobile artillery would be chiefly needed. He did not 
foresee, apparently, this sedentary war. But he possesses 
the great virtue of having changed his military methods in 
face of changing circumstances. 
The great difference between French and German schemes 
of attack and defence, as expounded by, say, Foch and' 
von Moltke, is that the French play the game, with artistry, 
with subtle science, and a nice balance of caution with courage, 
whereas the German seems to rule out all human elements, 
and to rely upon force and the power to accumulate masses 
of men and material upon a given spot in the quickest time, 
and hurl them at all the obstacles. The German, indeed, 
disregards the personal equation, and thinks only of his 
mil tary muscles. Foch believes in playing his fish, Luden- 
dorff in stunning it and introducing the gaff at the 
earliest moment. It is not merely a difference in con- 
ception, but a difference in the very soul of the fighter ! 
Ludendorff, if you examine his portrait, seems to be the 
ideal figure of a German general ; he typifies that school of 
war. His character is written plainly in his features just as 
it is expressed in his strategy and political policy. It has 
been said that, secretly, he is amused and disdainful of the 
rather heavy gambolling of Hindenburg, the wooden god, 
and of the theatricality of his Imperial Master. He dwells 
a one, shunning delights. Coldly and laboriously with tire- 
l«>ss energy he bends to his task, whilst "the other" is per- 
petually "in representation." But Ludendorff scorns popu- 
larity, and prefers the secrecy of his own thoughts and burnt 
offerings of labour to the fleshpots of Egypt. 
Only in this latter trait — this desire to withdraw for silent 
and uninterrapted work^ — does Foch resemble the man with 
whom he fights, for it is clear that this war between the 
Powers is, in reality, a duel between Foch and Ludendorff. 
Just as the two men represent different ideals and different 
civilisations, so their ways of thought and their mental 
atmosphere are directly opposed. 
I confess that when I first saw Foch, in the midst of a 
group of distinguished Frenchmen, I was astonished at his 
, "civilian" — almost professorial — aspect. I had expected a 
more martial figure. He seemed more the student than the 
warrior. The countenance, so expressive of high thought, 
showed strength in the rather massive jaw ; but, at first, 
one got only the intellectuality, a sense of deep abstraction. 
A closer view revealed the grey-blue of the eyes under their 
arches, of the kind that belong to action as well as to impulse. 
They belied — or, at least, neutralised — that earlier suggestion 
of the student's chamber rather than the battlefield. I 
thought of Joffre, wh/o has the same sort of eyes, and from 
them, likewise, flash the kindest intimations. But there 
was more than mere bonhomie in the gleams : a light ehone 
in Foch's eyes that came from within that betokened the 
spirit of the man and his inward illumination. The, eyes 
are the reflectors of his deeply concentrated and vivid per- 
sonality. They spiritualise and render singularly attractive 
features which otherwise would need relief from their deep 
seriousness. There is temperament, too, in those shining 
orbs. One is scarcely surprised to hear that sometimes the 
ardent temper of a man born in the South leaps up and 
bursts its bonds. The sun stirs the blood of the fighting man 
— -at least, from the South come some of the great captains of 
France. Marshals Gassion and Bernadotte come from Pau ; 
Foch from Tarbes ; Gallieni, the defender of Paris in Septem- 
ber, 1914, from close by ; Joffre from the Eastern Pyrenees. 
Foch has the true fighting genius ; he is best in attack. The 
story of his audacity at the Marne, where he held the centre 
under Joffre, has been a hundred times recorded. Though he 
was beaten back each day, each morning he came up smiling 
to a fresh attack. It must have been at that moment that 
he called his divisional commanders together. " I have lost 
a third of my effectives," said one; "and I a half," said 
another. Foch coolly made the calculation. "Very weU, 
then, we have so many. Let us attack at once!" An 
immediate assault was ordered against all reason ; but his 
pertinacity prevailed, and the enemy gave way. 
Later, on the Yser, his stubborn fighting spirit, which 
slumbers ever so lightly in his breast, called him to exhort 
British and Belgians to stand fast when both thought true 
wisdom lay in retirement. Historians will not weary of 
telling of his midnight visit to Sir John French (as he then 
was) on the night of October 31st. "The enemy have broken 
through," he announced to the intrepid British marshal. 
The latter declared that he had nothing with which to mend 
the hole — no reserves. "Then I will send you mine," 
answered Foch in his emphatic waj', and he was as good as 
his word. That is the man : energy, resourcefulness, quick- 
sightedness, purpose. At the battle of the Marne — the 
first — a French deputy (who has since related to' me the 
incident) met one of the new marshal's staff-officers on the 
small "place" of Fere-Champenoise (scene, by the way, of a 
combat between the French and the Allies — on different 
sides — a hundred years before). They talked of the success 
that had attended Foch's daring blow ; he had won that 
part of the battle by his skill and energy. "Foch a sontenu 
son armiey d. bras tendu," said the officer. It was a real 
glimpse of his character : Foch lending an active hand to - 
his own troops. No mere arm-chair strategist that. 
Yet, in the quiet of his plain little office, the marble fore- 
head and eyes of steel austerely bent over a little book in 
which he is jotting ordere of the day, he seems a living in- 
carnation of Rodin's "Thinker" on the steps of the Paris 
Pantheon — strong and absorbed. The telephone on the 
table in front of the hanging map, marked with great lines, 
are the only objects other than the simple furniture, lightened 
by the cheap cretonne curtains at the window. The tele- 
phone is the baton with which the marshal moves armies 
and commands myriads of men. Napoleon, with his spy- 
glass, climbing the hill to gain observation over enemy host, 
has his counterpart to-day in this pensive figure reflecting, 
reflecting . . . then speaking, with low voice into the trans- 
mitter. 
If Ludendorff 's gift for battle lies in preparation, Foch 
presents that ti-uly superior force of improvisation. It is 
precious in war, and it is peculiarly French. Moreover, in 
the hour of supreme test, it is victory. 
