Ferdinand Jean Marie Foch

Ferdinand Foch, maréchal de France, de Grande-Bretagne et de Pologne, est un officier général et académicien français né à Tarbes le 2 octobre 1851 et mort à Paris le 20 mars 1929. Il fut le commandant-en-chef des forces alliées sur le front de l'Ouest pendant la Première Guerre mondiale.

Ferdinand Foch (French pronunciation: [f%C9%94%CA%83]), GCB, OM, DSO (2 October 1851 – 20 March 1929) was a French soldier, military theorist, and First World War hero credited with possessing "the most original and subtle mind in the French army" in the early 20th century.

Foch's prestige soared as a result of the 1914 victory at the Marne for which he was widely credited as the chief actor while commanding the French Ninth Army. This led to his promotion to Marshal of France and ultimately "Supreme Commander of the Allied Armies" in 1918, at which time he played a decisive role in halting a renewed German advance on Paris in the Second Battle of the Marne.

Postwar historians took a less sanguine view of Foch's talents as commander, particularly as that idea took root that his military doctrines had set the stage for the futile and costly offensives of 1914 in which French armies suffered devastating losses. The efficacy of Foch's tactical ideas are debated—the Ninth Army's counterattacks at the Marne generally failed, but his sector resisted determined German attacks while holding the pivot on which the neighbouring French and British forces depended in rolling back the German line. One of his battlefield reports from the Marne—"Hard pressed on my right; center is yielding; impossible to maneuver. Situation excellent, I shall attack!"—won fame as a symbol both of Foch's battlefield leadership and of French determination to resist the invader at any cost.

On 11 November 1918, Foch accepted the German request for an armistice. Foch advocated peace terms that would make Germany unable to pose a threat to France ever again. His words after the Treaty of Versailles, "This is not a peace. It is an armistice for twenty years" would prove prophetic; the Second World War started twenty years and sixty five days later. In 1919 he was made Field Marshal in the United Kingdom and in 1923 Marshal of Poland, adding to a long list of military decorations.

Officier d'artillerie, généralissime en chef des armées alliées, maréchal de France, de Grande-Bretagne et de Pologne, grand-croix de l'ordre de la Légion d'Honneur, médaillé militaire, officier de l'instruction publique, académicien Français, académicien des sciences, grand-croix de l'ordre du bain, grand-croix de l'ordre de Léopold, chevalier grand-croix de l'ordre de Savoie, Distinguished Service Medal, président de l'Union Interalliée.

Ferdinand Foch (1851-1929) – francuski dowódca i teoretyk wojskowy, dowódca wyższych związków taktycznych armii francuskiej, marszałek Francji (1918), marszałek polny Wielkiej Brytanii (1919) i marszałek Polski (1923), szef Sztabu Generalnego, przewodniczący Rady Wojennej Sprzymierzonych, naczelny wódz Sił Sprzymierzonych. Wikipedia PL