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Marshal Ferdinand Foch ((:fɔʃ)), (2 October 1851 – 20 March 1929) was a French soldier, military theorist and the Allied Généralissime during the First World War. At the outbreak of war in August 1914, Foch's XX Corps participated in the brief invasion of Germany before retiring in the face of a German counter-attack and successfully blocking the Germans short of Nancy. Ordered west to defend Paris, Foch's prestige soared as a result of the victory at the Marne, for which he was widely credited as a chief protagonist while commanding the French Ninth Army. He was then promoted again to command Army Group North, in which role he was required to cooperate with the British forces at Ypres and the Somme. At the end of 1916, partly owing to the failure or stalemate of these offensives and partly owing to wartime political rivalries, Foch was removed from command.〔Greenhalgh, 2011〕 Recalled as Chief of the General Staff in 1917, Foch was ultimately appointed "Commander-in-Chief (Généralissime) of the Allied Armies" in the spring of 1918. He played a decisive role in halting a renewed German advance on Paris in the Second Battle of the Marne, after which he was promoted to Marshal of France. Addington says, "to a large extent the final Allied strategy which won the war on land in Western Europe in 1918 was Foch's alone." 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. After the Treaty of Versailles—signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand—Foch declared, due to France not being allowed to annex the Rhineland or occupy the area for a period of thirty years, "This is not a peace. It is an armistice for twenty years". His words proved prophetic: the Second World War started twenty years and 64 days later. ==Early life== Foch was born at Tarbes, Hautes-Pyrénées, the son of a civil servant from Comminges. He attended school at Tarbes, Rodez and the Jesuit College at Saint-Étienne. His brother later became a Jesuit priest, which may initially have hindered Foch's rise through the ranks of the French Army since the Republican government of France was anti-clerical.〔 Foch enlisted in the French 4th Marine Infantry Regiment in 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War, and decided to stay in the Army after the war. In 1871, he entered the ''École Polytechnique'' and, in 1873, received his commission as a Lieutenant in the 24th Artillery Regiment, despite not having the time to complete his course due to the shortage of junior officers. He was promoted through the ranks, eventually becoming a Captain, before entering the Staff College in 1885. In 1895 he returned to the College as an instructor and it is for his work there that he was later acclaimed as "the most original military thinker of his generation".〔Michael Carver (editor), ''The War Lords: Military Commanders of the Twentieth Century'', (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1976), p. 123. ISBN 0-297-77084-5〕 Turning to history for inspiration, Foch became known for his critical analyses of the Franco-Prussian and Napoleonic campaigns and of their relevance to the pursuit of military operations in the new century. His re-examination of France's painful defeat in 1870 was among the first of its kind. During his time as an instructor Foch created renewed interest in French military history, inspired confidence in a new class of French officers, and brought about "the intellectual and moral regeneration of the French Army".〔 His thinking on military doctrine was shaped by the Clausewitzian philosophy, then uncommon in France, that "the will to conquer is the first condition of victory." Collections of his lectures, which reintroduced the concept of the offensive to French military theory, were published in the volumes ''"Des Principes de la Guerre"'' ("On the Principles of War") in 1903, and ''"De la Conduite de la Guerre"'' ("On the Conduct of War") in 1904. While Foch advised "qualification and discernment" in military strategy and cautioned that "recklessness in attack could lead to prohibitive losses and ultimate failure,"〔Shirer, p. 80〕 his concepts, distorted and misunderstood by contemporaries, became associated with the extreme offensive doctrines (''l'offensive à outrance'') of his successors. The cult of the offensive came to dominate military circles; that Foch's books were cited in the development of Plan XVII, the disastrous offensive that brought France close to ruin in 1914, proved particularly damaging to his reputation. Foch continued his initially slow rise through the ranks, being promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1898. Thereafter, his career accelerated and he returned to command in 1901, when he was posted to a regiment; he was promoted Colonel in 1903. After a short time spent as Deputy Chief of the General Staff, he was appointed Commandant of the École Militaire, then Brigadier General (Général de Brigade) in 1907, returning to the Staff College as Commandant from 1907–1911. In 1911 he was promoted to Général de Division (equivalent to the rank of Major General) and then in 1913 took command of the French XX Corps at Nancy. He had held this appointment for exactly one year when he led the XX Corps into battle. Foch was seen as a master of the Napoleonic school of military thought, but he was the only one of the Military College Commandants (Maillard, Langlois, Bonnal) still serving. Their doctrines had been challenged, not only by the German school, but also since about 1911 by a new French school inspired by General Loiseau de Grandmaison, which criticised them as lacking in vigour and offensive spirit, and contributing to needless dispersion of force. The French Army fought under the new doctrines, but they failed in the first battles of August 1914, and it remained to be seen whether the Napoleonic doctrine would hold its own, would give way to doctrines evolved during the war, or would incorporate the new moral and technical elements into a new outward form within which the spirit of Napoleon remained unaltered. The war gave an ambiguous answer to these questions, which remained a source of controversy amongst experts. Foch influenced General Joseph Joffre (Chief of General Staff, 28 July 1911 – 12 December 1916) when he drafted the French plan of campaign (Plan 17) in 1913. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ferdinand Foch」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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