Ferdinand Foch

Foch, Ferdinand 

Born Oct. 2, 1851, in Tarbes; died Mar. 20, 1929, in Paris. Marshal of France (1918), field marshal of Great Britain (1919), and marshal of Poland (1923). Member of the Académie Française (1918).

Foch became an artillery officer in 1873. In 1887 he graduated from the Ecole supérieure de Guerre, where he was a professor from 1895 to 1900 and director from 1908 to 1911. At the beginning of World War I, Foch commanded a corps and later the Ninth Army; in 1915 and 1916 he was commander of the Army Group of the North. In May 1917 he was made chief of the General Staff and in April 1918, supreme commander of the Allied forces. Foch played an important role in the Allies’ victory over the coalition of the Central Powers. From 1918 to 1920 he was one of the active organizers of military intervention in Soviet Russia. Foch was the author of works on military theory, and he wrote his memoirs.

WORKS

O vedenii voiny, 2nd ed. Moscow, 1937. (Translated from French.)
Vospominaniia (Voina 1914–1918 gg.). Moscow, 1939. (Translated from French.)

REFERENCES

Gaquère, C. F. Vie populaire du maréchal Foch. Arras, 1955.
Grasset, A. Foch ou la volonté de vaincre. Paris, 1964.