ILLUSTRATIONS

Marshal Foch at the Peace Conference . . . . . . Frontispiece

The room in which Ferdinand Foch was born

The house in Tarbes where Foch was born

Ferdinand Foch as a schoolboy of twelve

The school in Tarbes

Marshall Joffre—­General Foch

General Petain—­Marshal Haig—­General Foch—­General Pershing

General Foch—­General Pershing

Marshal Foch, Executive head of the allied forces

Ferdinand Foch, Marshal of France

FOREWORD TO REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION

When the Great War broke out, one military name “led all the rest” in world-prominence:  Kitchener.  Millions of us were confident that the hero of Kartoum would save the world.  It was not so decreed.  Almost immediately another name flashed into the ken of every one, until even lisping children said Joffre with reverence second only to that wherewith they named Omnipotence.  Then the weary years dragged on, and so many men were incredibly brave and good that it seemed hard for anyone to become pre-eminent.  We began to say that in a war so vast, so far-flung, no one man could dominate the scene.

But, after nearly four years of conflict, a name we had heard and seen from the first, among many others, began to differentiate itself from the rest; and presently the whole wide world was ringing with it:  Foch!

He was commanding all the armies of civilization.  Who was he?

Hardly anyone knew.

Up to the very moment when he had compassed the most momentous victory in the history of mankind, little was known about him, outside of France, beyond the fact that he had been a professor in the Superior School of War.

Now and then, as the achievements of his generalship rocked the world, someone essayed an account of him.  They said he was a Lorrainer, born at Metz; they said his birthday was August 4; they said he was too young to serve in the Franco-Prussian war; and they said a great many other things of which few happened to be true.

Then, as the summer of 1918 waned, there came to me from France, from Intelligence officers of General Foch’s staff, authoritative information about him.

And also there came those, representing France and her interests in this country, who said: 

“Won’t you put the facts about Foch before your people?”

If I could have fought for France with a sword (or gun) I should have been at her service from the first of August, 1914, when I heard her tocsin ring, saw her sons march away to fight and die on battlefields as familiar to me as my home neighborhood.

Not being permitted that, I have yielded her such service as I could with my pen.

And when asked to write, for my countrymen, about General Foch, I felt honored in a supreme degree.