Foch in Command
The Forging of a First World War General

This is the first study in English of the French general who led the Allies to victory in 1918.

Elizabeth Greenhalgh (Author)

9781107633858, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 30 January 2014

570 pages, 15 b/w illus. 20 maps 1 table
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.9 cm, 0.75 kg

'Few, I believe, would disagree with this assessment of Ferdinand Foch, and fewer still would hesitate to welcome this high-resolution snapshot of a military commander in wartime crisis.' H-France (h-france.net)

Ferdinand Foch ended the First World War as Marshal of France and supreme commander of the Allied armies on the Western Front. Foch in Command is a pioneering study of his contribution to the Allied victory. Elizabeth Greenhalgh uses contemporary notebooks, letters and documents from previously under-studied archives to chart how the artillery officer, who had never commanded troops in battle when the war began, learned to fight the enemy, to cope with difficult colleagues and allies, and to manoeuvre through the political minefield of civil-military relations. She offers valuable insights into neglected questions: the contribution of unified command to the Allied victory; the role of a commander's general staff; and the mechanisms of command at corps and army level. She demonstrates how an energetic Foch developed war-winning strategies for a modern industrial war and how political realities contributed to his losing the peace.

Introduction
Part I. From Theory to Practice: 1. From the Ecole de Guerre to August 1914 in Lorraine
2. 'He held to the last quarter hour': with Ninth Army on the Marne
3. Commander-in-Chief's deputy in the north, October–November 1914
4. The end of the war of movement and reflections on 1914
5. Second Artois, January–June 1915
6. Third Artois, June–October 1915
7. The scientific method: planning the Somme, 1916
8. Fighting on the Somme, July–November 1916
9. In disgrace: reflections on two years of command
10. Intermezzo 1917
Part II. Supreme Command: 11. At the Supreme War Council, November 1917–March 1918
12. Michael and Georgette, March–April 1918
13. BLÜCHER and GNEISENAU, May–June 1918
14. Marneschutz-Reims and Second Marne, July 1918
15. 'Les Boches sont dans la purée': the Huns are really in the soup
16. 'Tout le monde à la bataille'
17. Waffenstillstand, October–November 1918
18. Losing the peace
Conclusion: 'supreme command is less than people think'.

Subject Areas: First World War [HBWN], Military history [HBW], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], European history [HBJD]