Foch in command : the forging of a First World War general / Elizabeth Greenhalgh.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Pt. 1. From theory to practice -- "He held to the last quarter hour" : with Ninth Army on the Marne -- Commander-in-chief's deputy in the north, October-November 1914 -- The end of the war of movement and reflections on 1914 -- Second Artois, January-June 1915 -- Third Artois, June-October 1915 -- The scientific method : planning the Somme, 1916 -- Fighting on the Somme, July-November 1916 -- In disgrace : reflections on two years of command -- Intermezzo 1917 -- pt. 2. Supreme Command -- At the Supreme War Council -- Michael and Georgette, March-April 1918 -- Blucher and Gneisenau, May-June 1918 -- Marneschutz-Reims and Second Marne, July 1918 -- "Les boches sont dans la pur{u2965}" : the Huns are really in the soup -- "Tout le monde {u1860}la bataille" -- Waffenstillstand, October-November 1918 -- Losing the peace -- Conclusion: "Supreme Command is less than people think."

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.

On 7 August 1918 the president of the French Republic raised General Ferdinand Foch to the dignity of marshal of France. Foch had reached the pinnacle of his military career. Less than five months earlier, on 26 March 1918, he had been chosen by unanimous consent of the British and French military and political leaders to be generalissimo of the Allied armies on the Western Front. To undertake the terrible responsibility thrust on him Foch would be required to draw on all he had learnt as a soldier in the prewar period and to reflect on his performance as a commander since August 1914. This book is a study of Foch's command in the positions that he occupied during the war; its aim is to examine how Foch's ideas evolved as he moved along the path that led to the supreme command. As Foch himself wrote: One does what one can to apply what one knows.