Ferdinand Foch
Ferdinand Foch
Marshal Ferdinand Jean Marie Fochwas a French general and Marshal of France, Great Britain and Poland, a military theorist and the Supreme Allied Commander during the final year of the First World War. Historians describe two sides of Foch. The first is the aggressive, even reckless commander at the First Marne, Flanders, and Artois campaigns of 1914-1916. The other side is the Allied Commander-in-Chief who in 1918 successfully coordinated the French, British, American, and Italian efforts into a coherent whole...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionSoldier
Date of Birth2 October 1851
CountryFrance
The power to command has never meant the power to remain mysterious.
No study is possible on the battlefield.
One does simply what one can in order to apply what one knows .
I am conscious of having served England as I served my own country.
To inform, and, therefore to reconnoitre , this is the first and constant duty of the advanced guard.
All the same, the fundamental truths which govern that art are still unchangeable; just as the principles of mechanics must always govern architecture, whether the building be made of wood, stone, iron or concrete; just as the principles of harmony govern music of whatever kind. It is still necessary, then, to establish the principles of war.
There is but one means to extenuate the effects of enemy fire: it is to develop a more violent fire oneself.
A beaten general is disgraced forever.
This is not a peace. It is an armistice for twenty years.
Victory is a thing of the will.
Regulations are all very well for drill, but in the hour of danger they are no more use. You have to learn to think.
In whatever position you find yourself, determine first your objective.
It take 15,000 casualties to train a major general.
Don't drown yourself in details. Look at the whole.