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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.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
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'.
Über den Autor / die Autorin
Elizabeth Greenhalgh is a QEII Research Fellow based in the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra. Her previous publications include Victory Through Coalition: Britain and France during the First World War (Cambridge University Press, 2005).
Zusammenfassung
This is the first study in English of the French general who led the Allies to victory in 1918. Elizabeth Greenhalgh sheds new light on how Foch grappled with the enemy, with his allies and with his political masters, and how he learned to wage modern industrial war.
