'MK ^V xm^Y V'-'^-^V' X'W'Y ^ 9^ .^.^*j^^y>. ,v I?' ^jt. -ftp 'i^* <> -o"^ •'•"'• c» .0' ♦l:c.* ^> ^o9 "'^^o'^ BY THE SAME AUTHOR GENERAL JOFFRE AND HIS BATTLES With Portrait and Maps " It is one of the interesting books on the strategy and the important personalities of the war." — New York Times. FOCH THE WINNER OF THE WAR Copyrit/IU by " L' Illustration." Paris. Underwood and Underwood, N. Y. Marshal Ferdinand Foch. FOCH THE WINNER OF THE WAR BY RAYMOND RECOULY (captain x) THE AUTHOB OW "OEHEBAL JOVFBE AND BIS BATTLES* TRANSLATED BY MARY CADWALADER JONES NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1920 IJC342 CoPTRiaHT, 1920, BT CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS Published January. 1920 rev) -t) I 920 ©CI.A559779 -^M: \ CONTENTS I CHAPTER PAGB I. Some Glimpses of Foch 3 II. His Family and His Cabeee 18 III. His Lectures at the Ecole de Guerre ... 32 IV. In Command op the Twentieth Army Corps . 71 V. At the Head of the Ninth Army 87 VI. The Pursuit and the Check 122 VII. The Battle of Flanders 133 VIII. The French Offensive of 1915 163 IX. Verdun 170 X. The Somme 177 XI. A Visit to Foch 201 XII. The Change of Command 206 XIII. Foch, Generalissimo 216 XIV. The Widening Battle 254 Index . . .' 263 ILLUSTRATIONS Marshal Ferdinand Foch Frontispiece •' FACINQ FAQB The house in which Foch was born 20'* Copy of Foch's birth certificate 22 *^ House of the Foch family at Valentine 24'"^ Foch and his brothers 28'-' Foch, captain of artillery 40''^ General Joffre and General Foch at Cassel 138 At the headquarters of Foch at Sarcus 184' Presentation of the Marshal's baton to Foch 252 Marshal Foch at Metz 258 ^ MAPS PAGE The French offensive in Lorraine and the defense of Nancy (August, 1914) 81 The Battle of the Marne: Position of the armies, September 5, 1914 1 Between pages Position of the armies, September 10, 1914 J 98 and 99 Map of the marsh country of Saint Gond and F^re-Champe- noise 102 The Flanders front, November 1, 1914 134 Battle of the Somme (1916) 179 '^ Field of the second battle of the Marne, Between pages 236 and 237 ■-'' The Allied front m France, March 21-November 11, 1918 At end of the volume vii FOCH THE WINNER OF THE WAR "It 13 a mistake to suppose that any one method of attack ia better than another; one's action should be determined by circumstances. ... It is only toward the end of the day, when I perceive that the enemy is tired and has drawn upon most of his resources, that I gather together all the troops which I have been able to keep in reserve, and throw a great mass of infantry, cavalry, and artillery into the field. This makes an event which the enemy had not foreseen, and by thia means I have almost always been able to win the day." — (Letter from Napoleon to Marshal Gouvion Saint Cyr, quoted by Foch in his lec- tures at the Ecole de Guerre.) "Victory will always go to those who deserve her through having stronger will and higher intelligence than others." — (From Foch's lec- tures at the Ecole de Guerre.) "Victory is an inclined plane on which a moving body, unless stopped,' gains speed by its own momentum." — (From an interview with Foch. in September, 1918, quoted by M. Babin in I' Illustration.) CHAPTER I SOME GLIMPSES OF FOCH On the 30th of August, 1914, a few days before the first battle of the Marne, I was at Attigny, a little town on the Aisne not far from Rethel. Ours was the "Moroccan Division," which had won immortal laurels in the first days of the war, and we were falling back from the Belgian frontier, northeast of Charleville, in the direction of Rheims and Eper- nay, covering the Fourth Army. Never was there a stranger retreat. Day by day we gave up more and more ground, leaving flourishing towns, prosperous villages, and fertile fields at the mercy of a brutal enemy, and yet not one of us, from our great chief down to the humblest private soldier, ever doubted for a moment that in the end victory would be ours. Every now and then we got a chance to prove our faith; the division would halt, face about, and attack the Boches boldly, and, although they al- ways outnumbered us greatly, being often two or three to our one, we knocked them about and held our ground. We were in full retreat, and yet our morale was as high, our confidence as great, as though we had been advancing. There is perhaps no instance in history 3 FOCH where a million men, forced back by an invading en- emy along a front himdi\>is of miles long, were yet firmly con\'inced all the while that they could not be beaten. In company with a fellow staff-ofBcer I had been sent with orders that morning to Attigny, and there we saw a general pacing mechanically up and down in the open space before the little church. His hands wee bdund his back; his face was grave, his expression anxioos but firm. It was Foch. A poilu in one of tiie passing columns pointed him out to a c^ / / / '4 ■ ^ '^^ ^<^^ ^i*;'i a^l^t/XM^ fiU*.,^ /aCctfE. Position of the armies, September s, 1914- THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE. rusition of the armies, September 10, 1914. HEAD OF THE NINTH ARMY rushed blindly in pursuit of the British and our Fifth Army, as a ^dld boar charges with lowered head; by so doing he had made a sharp bend toward the southeast on the 3d of September, not pressing his advance on Paris for the moment, and also (which was more serious) not noticing that Maunoury's army was massed on his flank. If he did not know of its presence there the much- vaunted German intelligence department was griev- ously at fault, but it is more probable that von Kluck knew its whereabouts, but underestimated its strength. He may have thought it made up of reserves and of the territorial divisions which he had been battering near Amiens, regrouped; the Germans, as I have said, always invited defeat by undervaluing their op- ponent's resources and his morale. In the present case, from whatever reason, von Kluck only left one corps to face Maimoury. Joffre knew on the 4th that von Kluck had changed his course, and after a momentous interview with General GalHeni (who had charge of the defenses of Paris) he gave out his famous order that evening. As one looks back at the battle of the Mame its countless details disappear, and one sees only a ma- jestic whole laid out on simple lines, like the master- pieces of classic French art. It must therefore be looked at as a whole in order to be understood. The front was over three hundred kilometres long, running from Paris to the Vosges, but the battle was finally decided in two sectors; by Maunoury's army at the 99 FOCH battle of the Ourcq; and by Foch's at the marshes of Saint Gond. Joffre's general order determining the position and task of each army ran thus: I. Advantage must be taken of the precarious situ- ation of the First German Army (von Kluck) by concentrating against it the forces of the AUied armies on the extreme left. All ar- rangements will be made on September 5th, in view of an attack on the 6th. n. The disposition of forces to be eJBfected on the evening of September 5th, will be: (a) All the forces at the disposal of the Sixth Army (Maunoury), northeast of Meaux, must be ready to cross the Ourcq between Lizy-sur-Ourcq and May-en-Multien, in the general direction of Chateau-Thierry. (6) The British army, on the Changis-Coulom- miers front, will be ready to attack in the general direction of Montmirail. (c) The Fifth Army (Franchet d'Esperey), in slightly closer formation on the left, will take its position along the general line Courtagon-Esternay-S^zanne, ready to attack in the general direction of south- north. The Second Cavalry Corps will secure the connection between the British troops and the Fifth Army. 100 HEAD OF THE NINTH ARMY (d) The Ninth Army (Foch) will cover the right of the Fifth Army, and hold the south- ern approaches to the marshes of Saint Gond. A portion of its forces will take up their position on the plateau north of Sezanne. in. The offensive will be taken by these various armies on the morning of September 6th. The Third Army (General Sarrail) and the Fourth (General Langle de Gary) received their orders on the 6th. The Third was to come out of Revigny and take the offensive toward the west, and the Fourth to stop marching southward and unite with the Third. A glance at the map will show that when the fight- ing began Foch's army was in the very centre of the French front. On the evening of the 5th the general's quarters were at Pleurs, a small village half-way be- tween Sezanne and Fere-Champenoise, south of the highway connecting them. The headquarters of the army were a Httle farther south. The Forty-second Division was at Villeneuvc-l^s- Gharleville, in touch with the army next it; the Mo- roccan division was at Mondement and Saint Prix; the Ninth Corps held the Fere-Champenoise region, with its advance-guard toward Morains-le-Petit and to the north of the marshes of Saint Gond, in the region of Toulon-la-Montagne; the Eleventh Corps was in 101 FOCH the region of Semoine, Lenharree, and Sommesous, barring the road from Chalons-sur-Marne to Arcis- sur-Aube; the Ninth Cavalry Division was on its right a Chapelje -s-Orbafi ,:>.Rep«s, '^ fei^^ enoisc Map of the marsh country of Saint Gond and F^re-Champenoise at the camp of Mailly, in touch with the Fourth Army next it; while the reserve divisions were somewhat farther back, north of the Aube. According to General Joffre's orders the task of the Ninth Army was chiefly defensive; it was to cover the 102 HEAD OF THE NINTH ARMY Fifth Army by holding the southern approaches to the marshes of Saint Gond and to place a part of its force on the plateau north of Sezanne. As one follows the highway from Fere-Champenoise to Sezanne one sees to the right a ridge of high ground hanging like a long cliff over the wide plain below, and highest at Mont Chalmont, Mont Aout, Allemant, and Broyes. On the other side of these heights, to the north, are the famous marshes of Saint Gond, named from an abbey founded in the seventh century and turned into a convent later. A stream called the Petit Morin runs the whole length of the marshes, which are only under water during the winter floods; in sum- mer they are dry for the most part, with here and there shallow pools covered with reeds and water- loving plants. All this region of Montmii^ail, Champaubert, and Fere-Champenoise has made history in many wars. The hordes of Attila were checked here in 451, and here also in 1814, more than a thousand years later, Napoleon, with a handful of improvised troops, won battles which were memorable although without last- ing resLilts. A wide stretch of level ground to the west of the road between Fere-Champenoise and Vertus is known in the countryside as "the battle-field." Fate had decreed that the fortunes of France, and through her those of the whole civilized world, should be decided on this old fighting-ground. The struggle was violent throughout, but, as the mighty battle went on, more savage and determined at 103 FOCH some points than at others. One of these points was the chateau of Mondement. It stands in the very- centre of the field; on the plateau above the marshes of Saint Gond, the picturesque outline of its thick round towers and sturdy walls visible for miles aroimd. It was taken by the Germans and retaken by the French in an heroic and desperate assault, after three successive attacks had failed. Mondement is already a place of pilgrimage, and wiU be so increas- ingly as time goes on, for all those who wish to Hve over again one of the great moments of history. Its ruins are a monument to our victory. On the evening of the 5th the Moroccan division was ordered to send a brigade toward Coiu-jonnet and Coizard, north of the marshes, and at any cost to pre- vent the Germans from gaining their southern border. Blondlat's brigade went briskly forward, but was soon opposed by an enemy force of much greater num- ber, and during the night some of its "arabas" (the Hght Moroccan carts used in the African brush) were lost in crossing the marshes. That night we slept at Broussy-le-Grand, and at daybreak next morning the struggle began again; the artillery and rifle firing was furious all along the line. In obedience to Foch's orders the left wing of the Moroccan division tried to advance. Colonel Cros, bravest of the brave, being ordered to carry Saint Prix with his sharpshooters, in order to clear the way for the Forty-second Division on his left. The fight- ing was very stubborn, as Cros's men were far out- 104 HEAD OF THE NINTH ARMY numbered by the enemy; at the farm of Montalent some companies of Fralon's battahon pushed their way in at the point of the bayonet. When night fell on the 6th our division held fast to its positions, and the same was true of the Forty-second Division on our left, but the Ninth Corps on our right, which had tried to place advance-guards north of the marsheS; had been forced by violent attacks to fall back. About eleven o'clock in the morning General Blondlat reported to General Humbert that the Seven- teenth Division of the Ninth Corps, on his right, had evacuated Mont Toulon and that the enemy was rapidly advancing on that side. This advance left exposed one of our artillery groups, that of Martin, and it was obliged to limber up and fall back on Bannes at full speed. The Ninth Corps, however, held the southern border of the marshes, and at its right the Eleventh Corps was steady on the front of Morains-le- Petit, Eciuy-le-Repos, and Norm6e. During the night these villages were set on fire by a tremendous bombardment, and the two latter had to be evacuated. The forces which were attacking us were part of von Billow's army and of von Hansen's Saxons, and we were faced by the Prussian Imperial Guard, which was north of the marshes. The headquarters of my division that evening were at the chateau of Mondement, and I shall never for- get how extraordinary it looked at the end of that beautiful summer day. It stands with its back to- ward the north, almost on the edge of the cliif, and 105 FOCH the entrance is from the level ground on the west side, not far from the road. A large forecourt is en- closed by an iron raihng; the main building is only two stories high with round towers at the corners and wings on either side. The court, crowded with soldiers, was full of move- ment and animation; here and there fires had been kindled to cook the evening meal, and mounted or- derlies and runnel's were coming and going inces- santly. In the midst of this noise and confusion the master of the house, M. J , seemed rather helpless and upset, as well he might be, especially as he was in feeble health and old before his time. He was alone in the chateau save for his old mother, an equall}^ old housekeeper, and an old priest who lived near and had sought shelter with them. The serv^ants had all fled two days before, including the chauffeur, leaving the family helpless; there was a fine hmousine in the garage, but no one to drive it. We felt very sorry for the poor souls iuto whose peaceable lives the thunder- bolt of war had suddenly fallen. When the old house- keeper opened the cellar to get out a few bottles of wine for us she said to me timidly; "Do you think there's any danger? Perhaps it would be prudent to go away at once, but how are we to doit?" How was I to answer such an ingenuous question? There was danger enough, in all conscience, for Mon- dement from its commanding position was bound to be 106 HEAD OF THE NINTH ARMY in the thick of the fighting, and fiercely disputed by both sides. The enemy's artillery had been showering us with shells from their big guns that afternoon with their usual prodigahty. It is really almost impossible to imagine the orgy of heavy artilleiy firing indulged in by the Germans in these early days of the war; they well knew the capital importance of a prompt decision, and were determined at whatever cost and by whatever means to shake our morale. I was sure that the chateau and the little church near it would be a target for the German gunners that night or as soon as it was daylight next morning, but I was careful not to say this to the poor old soul, who would probably not have understood me if I had. I reas- sured her as best I could, and advised her to induce the whole household to take refuge in the cellar as soon as they heard the first shells. Then I told the orderhes to close aU the shutters tight on the north side of the house in order that no light should filter through; that might spare us a nocturnal bombard- ment and give us a chance to dine and snatch a few hours' sleep, which would be so much to the good. And dine we did, with fine appetites, in the charming dining-room of our involuntary host. The house was full of beautiful old furniture, eighteenth-century pastel portraits, glass cases of exquisite china, ivories, and other precious trifles, all arranged with great taste. The first shells fell on Mondement as soon as it was light enough to get the range, and before long the bombardment became intense. General Humbert had 107 FOCH chosen it for his post of command and he stood, with his chief of staff, now at the foot of one of the towers, now beside the neighboring church, looking through his field-glasses at the wide plain stretching below. As soon as he left one spot for another an enormous "marmite" would fall where he had been standing, smashing into the walls or making a crater in the ground as deep as a well. It almost seemed as if the German gunners had spotted him with their telescopes and were aiming di- rectly at him. Our chief surgeon, M. Baur, said in a low voice to one of my comrades: "Why don't you stand behind one of these big trees? You can see just as well, and you'll be sheltered"; then, to practise what he preached, he stepped behind the huge trunk of an old horse-chestnut. In a few seconds a big shell cut the tree in two as though it had been a match, killing our surgeon instantly; another fell among the cavalry escort, and many men and horses were killed. Soon there were so many craters in the road that it was almost impassable for motor-cars, and still the bombardment grew steadily hotter. Toward noon our position became untenable, and General Humbert moved two kilometres farther back, at the edge of the forest, on the road to Broyes. During these days the heat was scorching; the sun poured his pitiless rays on the heights and the plain where two mighty armies, the marrow, as it were, of two great nations, were clinched in a supreme effort. From Paris to the Vosges, the long battle-line was 108 HEAD OF THE NINTH ARMY ablaze. The decisive battle was on, our fate hung in the balance, and every one of us, from the highest to the lowest, knew it. They were days never to be forgotten; sometimes they seemed as long as centuries, and again they sped like minutes; my teacher, M. Bergson, was right when he said that time is only measured by the intensity of our emotions during its passage. A sharp line seemed to be drawn between those hours and all our previous lives. I cannot remember whether I slept or not. If I did it was certainly not at night, but sometimes in day- time, by snatches, now under a tree, now by the edge of a ditch; nothing mattered except the mighty evolu- tion of the battle with its ups and downS; its alter- nations of failure and success. Notwithstanding all the German efforts, the left wing of Foch's army, composed of the Forty-second Division and the Moroccan, stood firm and kept its front straight, but during the third day of the battle (September 8th) his centre and right wing, toward Champenoise, were seriously bent, and this grew worse instead of better. Our Eleventh Corps, hotly attacked by some guard regiments belonging to the Twelfth German Corps and also by their reserves, was obKged to fall back south of the Httle Maurienne brook, on the front of Corroy-Gourgangon-Semoine. We lost Fere- Champenoise, and as Foch's post of command would have been too much exposed he moved it farther south, to Plancy. 109 FOCH The line of our army as a whole was now slanting, as we could see from the chateau of Broyes (the village of that name is perched at the end of the cliff, and part of the old rampart of the chateau is in the vicarage garden). From there we had a wide view over the plain. The Germans had got beyond Fere-Cham- penoise, and now, as the day drew to its close, the whole vast stretch below was covered with an unnat- ural haze, shot through with gleams of red and orange. It was like some strange apocalyptic vision; the last rays of the summer sun fell on the clouds of dust stirred by the gun carriages, by horses' hoofs, and by the tramp of marching men; innumerable shells were flashing and bursting everywhere, but all other lights paled before the steady glare from our burning villages. Looking from that height it was clear to us that our Moroccan division must stand firm — ^that was indis- pensable, even essential, for if the Germans succeeded in pushing as far as Mondement and made themselves masters of the plateau, our line would be broken and the centre of our armies driven in. Their heavy artil- lery could shell our columns to any extent as we fell back across the plain, and a retreat might easily be turned into a rout. Some time in the middle of that night a countryman came bearing a letter which he insisted must be given to General Humbert at once. It contained a few lines hurriedly scrawled in pencil by M. J , the unfor- tunate owner of Mondement, imploring the general to 110 HEAD OF THE NINTH ARMY send a motor-car at once to deliver his old mother, his old housekeeper, the old priest, and himself from the hell in which they foimd themselves. The frightful bombardment had been going on over their heads all day as they huddled shut up in the cellar, and after every crash they could hear the stones of the house crumbling and falling above them. One of our comrades pluckily set off to fetch them, at the imminent risk of breaking his neck in the craters, and it was well that they did get out that night, for the old house was to have a much worse time during the next two days. On account of the extreme importance of the position which we were holding, the Ninth Corps, on our right, lent us their 77th Regiment of infantry to back up the regiments of Colonel Cros and Colonel Fellert, on our left, toward the Crete du Poirier, beyond the wood of Saint Gond. But on the 8th, in the middle of the day, that auxiliary regiment was hurriedly ordered to Saint Loup, as our front there was unsteady. This movement did not escape the keen eyes of the Germans, who were close to us, and at once became more enterprising, w^hile on the other hand Colonel Cros's sharpshooters were somewhat disagreeably im- pressed by seeing the 77th apparently retire. He and Colonel Fellert took their regiments back again toward Montgivroux, and Blondlat's brigade stood firm a little farther to the rear, near Allemant. The battle was in its third day, and the situation was becoming more and more serious. Left to our- 111 FOCH selves as we were, and attacked by such overpowering numbers, could we hold out ? And what would happen if we gave way? It is in moments like these that great leaders come to the fore by their strength of will and imtiring energy, and one must have lived through such moments to know the value of a positive decision made by a cool head and an intrepid spirit. General Foch was master of the situation. He knew through information received at Great Headquarters that the Fifth Army, on his left, was in an excellent position and advancing steadily, the Germans being in full retreat. To ward off the threatened danger, they were likely to attempt to throw Foch's army into dis- order, and break the centre of the French front. After his usual fashion Foch summed up his conclu- sions in a concise phrase: "If they attack me so hard here, it must be because they are badly off elsewhere." It was therefore imperative to put out aU our strength and hold on, whatever happened — and the best way to defend oneself, after all, is to strike. When every- thing seemed to be going against him Foch sent this message to Great Headquarters: "My centre is giving way, my right falling back; the situation is excellent. I shall attack." He was able to impart this calm con- fidence, bom of comprehensive vision, to all his sub- ordinates, and it must be said that his associates were worthy of their chief. General Humbert sent us one order after another; we were to stick fast, no matter what happened, to neglect no possible advantage, and 112 HEAD OF THE NINTH ARMY utilize every resource. He wrote to one of his subor- dinates, with the order to stand firm: "Your honor is at stake," and when an artillery oflScer suggested the advisability of a less exposed position he received an answer which took away all desire to change it. Another night came, bringing with it anxiety and foreboding instead of sleep. Surely the next day must decide the battle, one way or the other — the fate of our country was trembhng in the balance — ^which side of the scales would go up ? There were some wretched refugees from Rheims near us and I had promised to let them know if things went very badly, as they were ready to drag themselves still farther rather than fall into the enemy's hands. For a moment that night I was on the point of warning them that they had better move, but hope and faith held me back. No — I would not tell them — to do so would be to doubt that we should win — and that I did not dare ! The Decisive Moment — Foch's Manceuvre DayHght came only too quickly, and at once the battle began again. Brave Colonel Cros, who had managed to give his sharpshooters some food and sleep, launched them in the direction of the Signal du Poirier, and gained a foothold in the northern part of the wood of Saint Gond. Soon we had a very serious blow. A whole German brigade came out of Reuves and made for Mondement; our troops, which had been holding the villages and the 113 FOCH approaches to the chateau, were so outrmmbered that they had to fall back. A regiment of artilleiy had been ordered to support our division, and as its commander, Colonel Barthal, was directing the placing of his bat- teries he was struck by a shell and instantly kiUed^ The Germans got into the chateau, and at once pro- ceeded to make it into an improvised fortress by punching loop-holes in the walls and installing machine- guns in the second story and the garret. With Mondement in the enemy's hands our situation became even more critical, especially as all our re- serves, to the last man, were already engaged. In answer to an appeal from General Humbert, the Forty-second Division, on our left, lent us its chasseurs a pied to reinforce our Ninth Corps, on the right, and with their help we stopped the Germans from advanc- ing beyond Mondement. A counter-attack on the chateau was then ordered, but did not succeed, as the enemy had had time to organize an effectual defense. That did not matter; we knew we must go on fighting until it was in our hands again, as it was the key of the whole situation. Word was sent to us that we should have back the 77th Regiment; but could it possibly reach us in time ? We despatched one motor-cyclist after another to its colonel, begging him to make all haste, and watched for it impatiently. At last we saw its men come toihng cheerfully up the steep road to Broyes as hard as they could go, although the heat and dust were stifling. There was no time for a halt, not even for a 114 HEAD OF THE NINTH ARMY swallow of coffee — on they went, fast and faster, be- yond the pine wood where the shells were falling like rain; it was like going into a fiery fui-nace, but Monde- ment must be taken. While our left, the Moroccan di\Tsion and the Forty-second were holding on with desperate deter- mination to the edge of the Champenoise cliffs, our centre and right continued to fall back. On the morn- ing of the 9th, two of our corps, the Ninth and Eleventh, were attacked by three German corps, and the Guard regiments charged so sohdly that our front wavered. In the centre its line ran at the foot of the heights at Allemant, to the northeast outskirts of the village of Connantre, while on the right our retirement was even more noticeable; we had been obliged to fall back from Gourgangon as far as Salon. Foch's confidence still remained unshaken. The Fifth Army, next his, lent him its Tenth Corps, which allowed him to reheve the Forty-second Division while the battle was in full swing. He then decided to throw this gallant division immediately across from our left to our right wing in order to fall suddenly upon the enemy's flank. Military men call this a ''mouve- ment de rocade," and its use by Foch at that crucial moment was a stroke of genius; it was, moreover, admirably executed and one of the chief determinants of our victory. While this movement was being carried out by the Forty-second Division, its ai-tillery was not needed for two hours, and was therefore loaned to us for a more 115 FOCH violent bombardment of Mondement, which it was absolutely necessary that we should retake. Never was a windfall more welcome ! The commander of this divisional artillery, Colonel Boichut, the virtuoso of the 75-mm. gun, was himself on the spot, and directed its magnificent action. The batteries came up at a full trot, and in the twinkling of an eye had taken up their position to the north of the village of Broyes, in a semi-circle. From there they opened a withering fire on the chateau of Monde- ment and the slopes leading up to it. The sun blazed down on the baking plateau where the artillery- men worked, but not for a second did the great pieces stop their infernal music. No troops in the world, no matter how brave, could advance through such a piti- less barrage; we were to see its effects next day in the roads and fields around the chateau. It was, of course, the best possible preparation for a second attack on Mondement, but this second attack failed, like the first. Our men got as far as the walls of the chateau, and the iron railing around the court, but there they were stopped by murderous fire from the German machine-guns. This second failure only made us all, from our gen- eral down, more determined to succeed. Mondement must be taken. Our final victory, like all our others during the war, was the fruit of intrepid will and dogged determination. Late in the afternoon the general ordered a third attack. The gims were to be hauled up until they were 116 HEAD OF THE NINTH ARMY within five or even three hundred metres of the cha- teau; its walls were to be rent open by shells and machine-guns— at any cost the enemy must be dis- lodged. These orders were carried out to the letter. The guns were pulled up close, and the assault made from three sides at once. This time it was successful. "Come along, my boys!" cried Colonel Lestoquois to his men as they hurled themselves at the chateau, "one more last pull and we've got them !" The Germans, bewildered and caught in a trap, lost their heads, and when they saw the bayonets of our men all who could jumped headlong out of the windows, abandoning their machine-guns and rifles. The rest surrendered or were run through. As night fell Mondement was ours again. While our assault was going on, the Forty-second Division, led by its intrepid general, Grossetti, made a flank attack on the Guard corps, in the direction of Fere-Champenoise. This sudden onslaught demoral- ized the Germans — it was the drop too much in a vase full of water. They had been fighting hard for four whole days, and their troops were worn out. So were ours, for that matter, and it was only a supreme effort of French energy and tenacity that sent the trembhng balance down at last. Foch's sudden manoeuvre took the Germans entirely by surprise; they found themselves attacked at their weakest point, where there was a sort of pocket in. their front, and that just at the critical moment when " 117 FOCH all their reserves were exhausted. The moral factor was even more affected than the material; the German staff felt itself beaten and lost its grip; the signal to retreat was given. Fate had done her work; the French army had won the greatest victory of all time. Let us now observe Foch's bearing during these four days of battle, and during the splendid manoeuvre which gave the German army its death-blow. Let us remember his doctrines at the Ecole de Guerre, for we shall find them exactly carried out on the field. He taught that war is, above all, a matter of deter- mination, belonging to the class of moral forces, and that a battle is lost morally, not materially. Therefore, when his centre and right were driven in, he drew upon his will; he determined not to ac- knowledge himself beaten. ''My centre is giving way, my right falling back; the situation is excellent. I shall attack." Those words, "the situation is excellent," spoken at such a moment, almost seem like bravado, but, on the contrary, they are profoundly true. To be well- informed and to see clearly is the first duty of a com- mander, said Foch again, and he saw the enemy's situation as a whole, not allowing himseK to be unduly influenced by what was happening around him. He saw the battle as an aviator sees a landscape, from above, and this vision gave him entire confidence. When one of his generals objected that his troops were 118 HEAD OF THE NINTH ARMY tired out he replied tersely: "The Germans are still more so. You will attack." Nothing could have been truer, and the Germans were more fatigued than we because they felt that vic- tory was deserting them. They redoubled their efforts and threw their last troops into the struggle as a des- perate gambler at bay stakes aU he has left on a last card. Foch's long study and reflection had taught him to know the Teutonic temperament and methods; he felt his adversary's steel, and knew his strength and weakness. He also taught that, in every battle, there is a cul- minating point for which one should have forces in reserve in order to strike hard at the right time and place. Genius in a leader consists in knowing when and where that is. There must be prudence and fore- sight as well as daring; a manoeuvre during a battle is only knowing how to prepare a decisive movement beforehand, and launch it at the proper time. During those four days he followed his own coimsel to the letter. He waited, held himself back, spared his forces carefully, and when the right time came he knew where to strike. If Grossetti's counter-attack had been made earlier it would very likely have had little effect, but com- ing when the enemy was tired out and had used up all his reserves it was the push which determined the German retreat. By launching this division at that precise time Foch made what Napoleon called "an event." Its arrival on the German flank at the su- 119 FOCH preme moment produced an effect at the battle of the Marne like that of MacDonald's column at Wagram and, in both cases, that effect was more moral than material. Energy, clear vision, coolness, control of himself and of others — all these quahties were shown by Foch in his conduct during the long conflict. "Victory," said he, "always belongs to men who deserve her by superior strength of will and intelli- gence" — and he proved the truth of his words at the battle of the Marne.^ ^ On September 7th, 1917, the third anniversary of the battle, an im- pressive ceremony took place at FSre-Champenoise and Mondement. Standing in the court of the chateau, in the presence of the President of the Republic, M. Poincar^, the Premier, M. Ribot, and the Secre- tary of War, M. Painleve, General Foch related some memorable in- cidents of the battle in his usual concise and exact manner, beginning his story with the arrival of General Joffre's famous order in the morning of September 5th. He described the fierce German attacks on the 6th, and that on the 7th, the Eleventh Corps on his right, "which had suffered severely at Charleroi, having lost ahnost all its officers," was "badly shaken." When attacked at Ecury-le-Repos and Norm^e it found the Germans making use of "their usual treacherous artifices." "Don't shoot!" they cried, and the simple Bretons allowed them to come close. The Eleventh Corps being unsteady, there was nothing to stop retreat, and on the 8th the situation was even worse; Fere-Cham- penoise was lost, and the whole line thrown back. The Tenth Corps was given to Foch as a reinforcement, and he decided to throw the Forty-second Division, in which he had entire confidence, into action. Its movement had to be covered; that task was intrusted to the troops of the Moroccan division, and well did they fulfil it ! They occupied the chateau of Mondement and the woods around it, and were told to "stand firm at any cost, as they were the axis on which the battle would turn." In Foch's own words, "Fate willed that the Moroccan division should be there — and it made good." "At last," said he, "Grossetti moved his troops in perfect order, and their place was taken by the Tenth Corps." This manoeuvre was to have borne fruit toward noon, but in a bat- tle one must always allow for the unforeseen. The Forty-second Di- 120 HEAD OF THE NINTH ARMY vision was delayed, and only came up at five o'clock in the afternoon. Then it attacked at Connantre, and the manoeuvre succeeded. This is a summary of Foch's remarks, as reported by M. Babin, of Vllliistration, and in concluding, the general attributed much of the victory to his associates — General Grossetti who, by his manoeuvre in the midst of the fighting, had "solved a difficult problem and accom- phshed a remarkable feat of arms," and General Humbert "whose courage nothing could shake, who held Mondement firmly, making it a vantage ground from which we could retrieve our imperilled for- tunes." 121 CHAPTER VI THE PURSUIT AND THE CHECK MoNDEMENT on the morning after the battle was a sight which I shall never forget, because it was not only remarkable in itself, but might have been a picture of war by some great artist. The court was littered with charred beams and smoking rubbish; here and there, in a clear space, the zouaves of the victorious 77th Regiment had stacked their rifles. The chateau with its sturdy towers was still standing, but shells had torn yawning holes in its walls and roofs; one of the wings, including the garage, had caught fire, and all that was left of the fine limousine which I had admired three days before was a tangle of twisted metal and a heap of ashes. Abandoned machine-guns stood about, and our men were passing German rifles curiously from hand to hand. Corpses lay everywhere, especially Germans; there had not been time to bury them, as the living had to be thought of first. All the ground floor, with its di^awing-rooms full of artistic trifles, had been turned into an ambulance, where the wounded lay on a little straw which the men had managed to find. A "marmite" had fallen into the kitchen, where it had (very inappropriately) done a great deal of damage, and the dining-room had been ravaged by a shell. 122 THE PURSUIT AND THE CHECK The contrast between the condition of the different rooms was perhaps what struck me more than anji-hing else; in one everything was destroyed, or in the utmost confusion; in another the bibelots stood quietly in their accustomed places, as if nothing out of the way had happened, and a delicate pastel portrait of a pretty woman with powdered hair and rouge-height- ened cheeks still smiled with the grace of another day from her gilded frame. Leaving the chateau, I went along the road leading downhill, to see where the enemy's positions had been. They were a cemetery, or rather a charnel- house; Colonel Boichut's gunners had done their grim work well, and the Germans lay in groups of ten or fifteen, where they had been when struck down by our terrible shells. A Httle to the left of the road a whole platoon of about thirty men, deployed as sharp- shooters, had begun to dig a trench; a blast of fire (of which the traces were plainly to be seen) had come, and had annihilated the whole platoon, the bodies being thrown violently forward. I could not see that they had been wounded; it was as if some evil magic had cast them suddenly from life to death, before they could even finish a haK-made gesture. One man's arm was bent, with his finger on the trigger of his rifle, ready to shoot; he might almost have been a wax figure such as one sees at the Musee Gr^vin. I was called away to the funeral of our chief sur- geon, M. Baur, as our halt gave time enough to have it in the church of Mondement. The poor httle church 123 FOCH had suffered even more than the chateau, for two huge shells had torn open one of its walls, making a gap several metres wide. The general, his staff-officers, and the stretcher-bearers made up the mourners, and a young soldier-priest solemnly recited the prayers for the dead. Surroimded as we were by war and destruc- tion, standing in the humble church laid open to the wind and rain, I was moved as I have seldom been at more imposing funerals. But we were quickly called back to realities. Ahnost before the corps on our right had cleared up the road we were to start northward, and we soon did, following on the heels of the Germans, who were sullenly re- tracing the same path that they had trodden so tri- umphantly — the path that had not led to Paris after all! The long days of blazing sunlight and torrid heat had been followed by gray impleasant weather, and a drizzling rain fell from time to time. I was sent to carry some orders about noon, and had to pass through Fere-Champenoise. The fighting there had evidently been very severe; there were also many signs that the Germans had retreated in great disorder, and had in- dulged in a drunken orgy during their short occupation of the town. The road might have been paved with empty bottles. Some of the houses were still smoking; bodies of dead Germans were to be seen everywhere, and prisoners by the hundred; rifles, knapsacks, and all sorts of mlHtary equipments were strewn around. 124 THE PURSUIT AND THE CHECK When I came out to the north of the town, on the vast plain lying on either side of the highway leading to Vertus, it was as if a panorama of the battle were spread before me. I have said before that the plain had long been called by the country people "the battle- field/' and what a battle had now been waged on its wide stretches! The Germans had buried or carried off their dead, but had left ours; hundreds of French corpses lay to right and left of the road, their red trousers making bright spots of color in the fields. Almost all were stretched out with their faces to the ground; it was here that the furious attack of the Prus- sian Guards had driven our Eleventh Corps back. In one of the wayside villages I found, shut up in a stable, about sixty of our men, who had been left be- hind when we retreated because they were too badly wounded to be moved; and there they had stayed during the whole battle. They had seen the entry of the Germans and heard the tremendous firing that went on day and night; then the Germans had de- camped in much too great a hurry to think of taking them along, and at last our return had set them free again. For two or three days after the battle our men found German soldiers emerging, from time to time, from the cellars of villages or farmhouses; they blinked in the broad daylight like moles or bats, and seemed much bewildered at finding themselves surrounded by our troops. Having dnmk their fill of our wine, they had been sleeping it off comfortably near the casks; 125 FOCH some of them may have found this a convenient way of escaping any further risks. Groups of other Germans were found who had lost themselves in the woods, and were wandering to and fro like animals, living on berries and roots. I remem- ber that one of these bands had been hiding for ten days in the forest of the Montague de Reims; two or three times they had ventured to show themselves on its outskirts, but as our riflemen had no means of knowing what their intentions might be, they were promptly fired on. At last, half-dead with hunger, they succeeded in surrendering to some peaceful drivers of army trucks, who were mightily proud of having made such a glorious haul without striking a blow. Our division crossed the Marne not far from Eper- nay, and General Foch installed his staff in the charm- ing building of the prefecture at Chalons. The city had suffered but little, as the enemy had been forced to clear out with all speed. An important member of the German staff had established himself in the best hotel of the city, called the Haute-Mere-Dieu, which is famous for its wine-cellar and especially for a deHcious red champagne. In the middle of the night there was a tremendous knocking at every door: "Quick ! make haste ! every- body must be gone in an hour!" and well within the hour they were all off, leaving behind in their hurry- great boxes of champagne which they had providently packed for future use. The Germans were past masters 126 THE PURSUIT AND THE CHECK in the art of defensive organization, as our division found to its unpleasant surprise when we first struck their barbed wire at Beaumont-sur-Vesle, not far from Rheims. Blondlat's brigade carried Prunay after rather stiff fighting, but could get no farther. It may be said that the whole division (and this was true of all the others) had almost reached the limit of human endurance; in many regiments the losses, both of officers and men, had been so great that very few were left. This exhaustion explains why our front was obliged to remain stationary for a time, and there were still other reasons, the most important being the shortage of munitions. Our 75-mm. gun has a terrible appetite for shells, and when one possesses a cannon which fires so quickly and does its w^ork so w^ll, it was almost impossible, in the early days of the war, to resist the temptation of letting it blaze away. During the whole of the battle all our batteries had been pouring a deluge of shells on the German armies, and now our supply was almost exhausted. (The same thing has also hap- pened, by the way, to the enemy.) At first we were not sufficiently respectful of the barbed wire, because it was practically new to us. When one of the youngest and most enterprising of our colonels was told that his men could not advance on account of it, he exclaimed: "Stopped by some strands of wire ! Let them cut it, or bend it back." We found to our disgust that it was not easy to cut or to bend, and then began the systematic use of 127 FOCH trenches, "boyaux," shelters more or less deep, barbed wire, and machine-guns, which was to become more and more important as the war went on, and was to differentiate it from wars that had been fought before our time. Almost all our front became immovable by digging itself in; the active struggle in the open was turned into a contest for advantageous positions. We had to bid farewell to long marches and to wanderings through ever-changing scenery, when we started in the morning, without being at all certain where we should sleep at night. Now we were in the age of steel — or rather of barbed wire — ^both armies were to mark time for weeks and months and years. In order to attack the enemy's trenches, which grew stronger and better organized day by day, and to carry his ever-multiplying lines, it was absolutely necessary that we should have plenty of heavy artil- lery, of which we had almost none. Our staff and artillery officers were, for the most part, hypnotized by the idea that the war would be one of action, and that only the 75-mm. gun would be needed. Now, admirable as that gun is in the field, and for barrage firing, it proved to be powerless against trenches and dugouts, consequently all sorts of old models of 95's, 120's, etc., were put in use, and guns were hauled out of arsenals where they were in peaceful retirement, never, apparently, to be used again. 128 THE PURSUIT AND THE CHECK But that was far from being enough. The crisis became more and more acute; the situation had to be saved by any makeshift means. Cannon were made as fast as possible, and all over France munition factories began to pour out shells. It was a wild dance, milhons of shells and also mil- lions of money, some of which fell into the laps of a certain number of people who did not seem particu- larly intended to receive it — ^but we ought not to com- plain, for it was the price we paid for victory. As the capital importance of the battle of the Mame became more and more apparent, Foch's prestige in- creased, for it was recognized that without his energetic persistence and, above all, without his briUiant final manoeuvre, even the successes of Maunoury and of the British and French on our right wing, could not have carried the day. He was therefore named Grand Commander of the Legion of Honor. The Germans had been forced to beat a retreat, and the fine offensive planned by their staff trailed its broken wings on the ground. But they were far from acknowledging defeat. Thanks to their long years of careful preparation, their resources, in men and ma- terial, were almost unlimited, and they at once or- ganized new divisions in order to deal us new blows. From the 20th to the 24th of September they made 129 a vigorous advance at Woevre, and a wide salient into the French front by the capture of Saint Mihiel. In the presence of the Kaiser, on the 25th of September, they attempted a general attack on our front in Champagne. I remember one striking episode in that battle. General Humbert, my chief, had been promoted, on account of his gallantry at Mondement, from the command of the Moroccan division to that of the Thirty-second Army Corps (which had just been cre- ated by joining the Forty-second Division and the Moroccan), and was one day at the fort of Montbre, not far from Rheims. As he was watching the enemy through his field-glasses, he saw a small patrol appear at the edge of a field; the men scattered, ran across the field at the double-quick, and disappeared into a ditch. In a few minutes another patrol did exactly the same. This aroused the general's curiosity, and he called the attention of his ofiicers to this odd game, which went on at regular intervals. Suddenly Hum- bert remembered a report made by General Serret, our military attache at Berlin (he was kiUed the next year at the head of his division in the Vosges). Ser- ret had been allowed to watch the training of the Prussian Guard, and gave a detailed account of a method of attack which consisted of sending out small detachments of men, not important enough to attract an enemy's attention, and teaching them to approach gradually, taking advantage of every cover, until they were close to the position they intended to carry. 130 THE PURSUIT AND THE CHECK General Humbert decided they were practising that lesson under his eyes. He therefore ordered his batteries to open a barrage fire all along the further edge of the field M'here he had seen the patrols, in order to cut off their communica- tion with the rear, and after this barrage had lasted for some time, our men made a rapid charge and had no difficulty in taking this detachment of the advance- guard prisoner. They were brought to us at Rilly- la-Montagne, where our headquarters were; about two hundred grenadiers, splendid looking fellows, tall and well set-up — not in the least like the miserable specimens of humanity whom we took toward the end of the war. Off they went, well guarded by an escort of dragoons, to Chalons, where Foch had his head- quarters. We used to see him from time to time during those weeks spent in the Montague de Reims. From that hill, and from the villages which cling to its steep flank, between the forest and the vineyards, there are wonderful nat^ural observatories, from which one can see far over the valley of the Vesle, and, on the other side of the river, the ridge of hills bearing the forts of Berru, La Pompelle, and Nogent TAbbesse. The city of Rheims, with the towers of its cathedral, dominates the whole. One misty September afternoon we saw those towers burst into flame, savagely set on fire by German shells. All that evening and into the night the glare and smoke stained the horizon, but a far deeper stain must forever soil the memory of the Boches 131 FOCH who, without any military reason, simply for the love of destruction, ruined one of our most hallowed monuments and one of the most precious jewels of our art. 132 CHAPTER VII THE BATTLE OF FLANDERS As the Germans had failed in their attempt to break through our lines in the Woevre, east of Verdun, and their attack in Champagne was also imsuccessful; they fell back on their old plan of an enveloping move- ment, to be made this time by their right wing. By a curious paraUeHsm, the French were attempting to do exactly the same thing with their left wing; each army strove to get around the other; it was like two chess players moving their pieces at the same instant. The map will show how much harder this concen- tration of forces was for the French than for the Ger- mans. They were on the inside of a front which made almost a right angle, ruiming from north to south, nearly to Compiegne, and from west to east, while we were on the outside; they were consequently able to move their reserves from one wing to the other in much less time than we required. This disadvantage was minimized by the exertions of our staff, and by the excellent service rendered then, as always, by our railways; the strategic transporta- tion, often carried on imder fire, or diu-ing active en- gagements, surpassed any expectations which we had had in time of peace. 133 y" -Clemskerke tOslende ., '^"ouLUve \^i^ oOudenbouno i e U p P L S^E3rt. •"-— > 2^''PiBi'''eXapellB^ertrych, 'v7 '^fervyse^ Cheskerkei Fl jes^D.TA 7 , . . 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