Lest We Forget: World War StoriesThompson, John G. (John Gilbert)
History
Lest We Forget: World War Stories
Thompson, John G. (John Gilbert)
Readers -- History; Readers -- World War, 1914-1918
Foch's decision and strength of purpose are well illustrated by an
incident which is told by the French officers working under his
command. He had sent some cavalry to protect the British army from
being outflanked and disastrously defeated. At the close of the day,
the cavalry commander reported to General Foch that he had been obliged
to withdraw, as the Germans had been reënforced. "Did you throw all the
forces possible into the fight?" asked General Foch. "No," answered the
cavalry commander. "You will at once take up your old position and hold
the enemy there until you have lost every gun," directed the general.
"Then you will report to headquarters for further orders."
Foch is a leader who plans well, who knows how to command, and how to
make others obey. His orders always end with the words, "Without
delay!" Because the enemy has usually had larger numbers and more
ammunition, time has been everything to the Allies. Foch saved time and
so saved the Allies.
After his great victory at the Second Battle of the Marne, Foch was
made a Marshal of France.
The Allies, in 1918, through the influence of President Wilson, it is
said, decided to appoint a generalissimo, that is, one who should have
direction of all the Allied forces on the west front, including those
in Italy. Foch was appointed to this command, and from this time the
German plans and campaigns began to go wrong. To this one man, who
entered the French army in his teens, and who commanded at sixty-six
the largest forces ever under one general, the successes of the Allies
were due, more than to any other single individual, unless it be
President Wilson.
Between July 15 and October, he had regained all the territory taken by
the Germans in their great drives of 1918 and had driven the enemy out
of the St. Mihiel salient which they had held since 1914. These
victories were won not by hammer blows of greatly superior numbers but
by generalship of the highest order and far superior to that of the
German leaders.
THE MEXICAN PLOT
It is true that Germany does not know the meaning of honesty and fair
play. Most Americans, in everything, want "a square deal." They demand
it for themselves, and a true American feels that the harshest thing
that can be said of him is that he is not fair and square in his
dealings. In any American school, a pupil who is deceitful is at once
shunned by all the other boys and girls as a "cheat" and a "sneak." He
has no place among them, least of all in their games and sports, for
not to play according to the rules of the game is to upset and spoil
the sport entirely.
In playing some of our great national games, like baseball and
football, where the players are divided into teams, one player, by
cheating, does not suffer for it himself alone, but his whole team has
to pay the penalty. Indeed, if he persisted in being unfair, he would
soon lose his place in the team for all time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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