[ Marshall Joffre--General Foch ]
[ General Pétain--Marshal Haig--General Foch--General Pershing ]
[ General Foch--General Pershing ]
[ Marshal Foch, Executive head of the allied forces ]
[ Ferdinand Foch, Marshal of France ]
FOREWORD TO REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION
When the Great War broke out, one military name "led all the rest" in world-prominence: Kitchener. Millions of us were confident that the hero of Kartoum would save the world. It was not so decreed. Almost immediately another name flashed into the ken of every one, until even lisping children said Joffre with reverence second only to that wherewith they named Omnipotence. Then the weary years dragged on, and so many men were incredibly brave and good that it seemed hard for anyone to become pre-eminent. We began to say that in a war so vast, so far-flung, no one man could dominate the scene.
But, after nearly four years of conflict, a name we had heard and seen from the first, among many others, began to differentiate itself from the rest; and presently the whole wide world was ringing with it: Foch!
He was commanding all the armies of civilization. Who was he?