Published at 13:46, Thursday, 05 July 2012

WE might not be best friends with France at the moment but back in 1918 we put a Frenchman in overall charge of our armies in a final bid to end the First World War.

FOREIGN HONOURS: The statue of French and British Field Marshall Ferdinand Foch in Victoria, London SUBMITTED

Field Marshal Ferdinand Foch got his victory for the Allies and was given the unique distinction of having a statue raised in his honour in London’s Victoria and being given the rank of a British field marshal.

The military leader’s career was the topic of a talk by Professor John Derry at a lecture day held by the Cumbria branch of the Western Front Association.

Foch was born in 1851 and his father was a minor civil servant.

By 1895 he had become an army staff college instructor and was a French general by 1908.

Prof Derry said: “He became associated with the cult of the offensive.”

It was this attack-at-all-costs strategy which was to cost the French so many lives in battles against machine guns and artillery.

In his favour, Foch had worked with both Belgian and English forces.

Prof Derry said: “Foch had a much more sensitive attitude to British sensibilities and was able to persuade rather than command.”

By the end of 1915 he had learnt from the early mistakes.

He said: “The attack isn’t enough, bravery isn’t enough. You had to have brains.”

Politics also played a part in his rise to the top as supreme Allied commander.

He had been in Italy and at staff college during the major and costly battlefield failures of 1917 which damaged the reputations of others – including British commander Douglas Haig.

Prof Derry said: “Foch is a figure to whom they could turn in 1918 without the feeling that his reputation had been tainted by recent failure or defeat.”

When the Germans ran out of steam in an all-out spring attack, Foch marched to victory in an orchestrated series of limited offensives.

Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk