Ferdinand Foch: biography. Marshal Foch: “If France was not erased from the map of Europe, then we owe this primarily to Russia Awards of foreign countries

- (Foch) (1851 1929), Marshal of France (1918), British Field Marshal (1919), Marshal of Poland (1923), member of the French Academy (1918). At 1 st world war commander of the army, army group, in 1917 1918 chief of the General Staff, from April 1918 supreme ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

- (French Ferdinand Foch, October 2, 1851, Tarbes March 20, 1929, Paris) French military leader, Marshal of France (August 6, 1918). In 1870 he was enrolled in the infantry, participated in the Franco-Prussian war. Soon he entered the Higher Polytechnic School, ... ... Wikipedia

Foch Ferdinand- (Foch, Ferdinand) (1851 1929), Marshal of France. During World War I, he took part in hostilities on the Western Front: he coordinated the actions of the allied forces to prevent the enemy from seizing the ports on the English Channel in 1914, commanded the French ... ... The World History

Foch (Foch) Ferdinand (October 2, 1851, Tarbes, √ 3/20/1929, Paris), Marshal of France (1918), Brit. field marshal (1919) and marshal of Poland (1923), member of the French Academy (1918). Since 1873 artillery officer. He graduated from the Higher Military Academy in France (1887) ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Foch, Ferdinand- Foch (Foch) Ferdinand (1851 1929), French military figure and theorist, Marshal of France (1918), British field marshal (1919), Marshal of Poland (1923). In the 1st World War he commanded a corps, army, army group, in 1917 18 chief of the general staff, with ... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

Foch, Ferdinand Ferdinand Foch Ferdinand Foch October 2, 1851 (18511002) March 20, 1929 ... Wikipedia

Ferdinand Foch (fr. Ferdinand Foch, October 2, 1851, Tarbes March 20, 1929, Paris) French military leader, Marshal of France (August 6, 1918). In 1870 he was enrolled in the infantry, participated in the Franco-Prussian war. Soon he entered the Higher ... ... Wikipedia

Ferdinand (Foch) (1851 1929). French military figure, marshal. During the First World War, the commander of the French armies, then the chief of the General Staff of France, the supreme commander of the armed forces of the Entente. In 1918 1920. one of… … 1000 biographies

- (1851 1929) Marshal of France (1918), British Field Marshal (1919), Marshal of Poland (1923), member of the French Academy (1918). In the 1st World War, the commander of the army, army group, in 1917 18 early. General Staff, from April 1918 Supreme Commander ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

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FOSCH FERDINAND

French commander of the First World War. Marshal of France. Field Marshal of Great Britain. Marshal of Poland.

Ferdinand Foch was born in the city of Tarbes in the Pyrenees department in the family of a civil official. His grandfather was an officer in the Napoleonic army, and the memory of him left a deep mark on the mind of Ferdinand Foch. Foch received his early education at the Jesuit colleges in Saint-Étienne and Metz. When the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871 began, he was drafted into the French army as an ordinary infantry regiment. However, he did not have to participate in hostilities. After the war, he entered the Polytechnic School, which he did not finish.

Foch decided to link his fate with the French army and entered the School of Applied Artillery. The junior officer moved up the ranks fairly quickly. In 1887 he graduated from the Higher Military Academy of France, after which he continued to serve successfully as assistant commander of an artillery regiment. During the administration of the French Ministry of War L. André, officer Ferdinand Foch, as a believing Catholic, brought up in a Jesuit school, was in bad standing, so his promotion to colonel was delayed for a long time.

In 1895 he returned to the Military Academy as a teacher. military history and strategy, soon became a professor. In 1903, Foch published his Principia des Militaries (On the Principle of War) and was promoted to colonel. In 1904 he published new labor"On Warfare". Several of his military-theoretical works are devoted to the application of Napoleonic tactics to modern technical conditions.

In 1907, Ferdinand Foch was promoted to brigadier general and until 1911 served as head of the French Military Academy. He rendered big influence on the formation of operational-tactical and strategic thinking of the officer corps of the French army. In 1910, Foch was sent to Russia, where he participated in military maneuvers as an observer from France.

In 1911, Foch received another general rank and was appointed commander of an army division, and in 1912 - commander of the 8th corps in Bourges, in 1913 - commander of the 20th corps in Nancy. In this position, he met the First World War.

The corps of General Foch covered the approaches to the Mert River near the city of Nancy, thanks to which Nancy managed to defend. The corps successfully operated during the French offensive in Lorraine and in the battle of Moranges in August 1914. From the end of August, Foch commanded an army group consisting of 2 army corps, 2 reserve, infantry and cavalry divisions.

Soon the army group was transformed into the 9th French Army, and General Foch received it under his command. This army distinguished itself in the battle on the Marne River in September 1914, when it withstood the onslaught of two German armies - the 2nd and 3rd. Despite heavy losses, the troops of General Ferdinand Foch again saved the city of Nancy from the Germans.

Shortly after the battle on the Marne, when the so-called "race to the sea" began, General Foch, appointed assistant to the commander-in-chief, General J. Joffre, participated in coordinating joint allied actions with the British and Belgians, whose troops were moving to the Flanders coast, in France and in negotiations with the British General Staff. In fact, he had to coordinate the actions of all the allied armies in northern France and did this quite successfully, which was largely facilitated by his friendly relations with General G. Wilson, at that time assistant chief of staff of the British expeditionary army.

After the battle of Ypres, when positional warfare was finally established on the Western Front, General Foch commanded Army Group North in 1915-1916. He led offensive operation in Artois (spring and autumn 1915), and also participated in the battle on the Somme (July - November 1916), which ended in victory for the Germans. The allied troops he commanded suffered huge losses. As a result, Ferdinand Foch was relieved of his post. This happened after the departure of Joffre from the post of French commander in chief.

For the next two years, Foch directed the Center for Military Studies at Senlis, near Paris, and developed a military plan there in case the German troops violated the neutrality of Switzerland and attacked France from the territory of this country. Then, in the absence of General Castelnau, Foch commanded the 7th and 8th armies, and then became a military adviser to the French government.

In May 1917, General Ferdinand Foch was appointed Chief of the General Staff under the French Minister of War. At the end of that year, he was sent to Italy, where the allied Italian army under the command of General Luigi Cadorna suffered a crushing defeat from the Austrians at Caporetto. They discussed the conditions under which French and British troops could enter the territory of Italy.

On November 6 and 7, 1917, General Ferdinand Foch participated in the anti-German conference in Rapallo near Genoa, at which it was decided to form the Allied Supreme Council (Entente), which was the first step towards unifying the command. The members of the Council were from Great Britain - Wilson, from Italy - General Cadorna and from France - Foch. Russia did not attend this conference for the reason that after the October events, she was already conducting separate peace negotiations with Germany and her allies.

At the end of January 1918, General Foch was appointed chairman of the Allied Military Committee, as he enjoyed great prestige among the high military command of the Entente countries. His influence on the solution of military issues in France increased after the government of Georges Clemenceau came to power.

In March 1918, a threatening situation developed for the Allies on the Western Front. German troops launched a new offensive and almost broke through to Amiens, while threatening the French capital of Paris. In such a dangerous situation, the French command began to care more about protecting their own capital than about helping the British. Then the commander of the British Expeditionary Forces, Field Marshal Douglas Haig, turned to the new Chief of the General Staff of Great Britain, General Henry Wilson, and to the Minister of Defense, Lord Milner, with a request to appoint Foch or another French general who will fight as commander-in-chief.

The British High Command agreed to the proposal of Field Marshal Douglas Haig. At a conference at Doullance on March 26, the Allies decided "to entrust to Foch the coordination of the actions of the Allied armies on the French front." But very soon it became clear that such coordinating measures were ineffective, that General Foch did not have the proper authority.

Then the governments of France and Great Britain, and then the United States, Belgium (she joined the Entente only in August) and Italy made a new decision - to appoint Ferdinand Foch as commander-in-chief of the allied armies operating on the Western (French) front: French, English, Belgian and arrived to American Europe. In the same year, Ferdinand Foch received the highest military rank of Marshal of France from the government of Georges Clemenceau. Soon he was elected a member of the French Academy, which was a recognition of his merits as a prominent military theorist.

As Commander-in-Chief of the Entente armies, Marshal Ferdinand Foch made a great contribution to the victory allied states over a coalition of Central Powers led by Imperial Germany. The French commander, having carefully studied the bitter experience of the first years of the World War, managed to correctly plan the course of further hostilities on the Western Front. First of all, he streamlined the use of reserves, which allowed the Allies to stop the German offensive in Picardy.

When making strategic decisions, Marshal Foch had to take into account the peculiarities of the French theater of operations: the accumulation of millions of fighting people in a relatively narrow space, the fettering influence of positional warfare and the heap of all kinds of military equipment. This was not the case in any of the last great European wars. Foch was greatly helped by his theoretical developments, which he did during his stay at the Military Academy. The commander-in-chief was well aware that, unlike the Russian front, maneuvering operations on the Western Front after the start of a positional war were simply impossible.

The last military campaign of the First World War lasted about eight months. March to July 1918 German troops conducted their last active offensive operations, threatening to break through to Paris and the seaside city of Calais. A crisis situation for the Allies was brewing on the Western Front. In May, the Germans defeated the French army at Chemin des Dames.

The commander-in-chief of the allied armies, Marshal Foch, with enviable equanimity, led the fighting on the Western Front, and the German offensive, having once again encountered a strong positional defense of the enemy, gradually fizzled out. During the second battle on the Marne River, the allied forces under the command of Marshal Foch bled the German armies advancing towards Paris, Field Marshal Hindenburg. After that, the allied forces themselves launched a counteroffensive in the Aisne-Marne region and restored the situation on the Western Front.

After that, the commander-in-chief of the Entente, patiently waiting for the arrival of American troops, himself launched a decisive offensive. The merit of Marshal Foch at the final stage of the First World War is generally recognized. Instead of organizing a large-scale frontal offensive, he launched a series of strong concentrated attacks on the centers of German communications and disrupted them. Offensive operations were carried out methodically and skillfully. Particularly successful were Amiens and St. Miel. The German army began to experience a serious shortage of food and ammunition.

Then, under the leadership of Marshal Foch, several more offensive operations were developed: the Meuse (Meuse) - Argonne, the assault on the Hindenburg Line and in Flanders. In such a difficult situation, the German command began to withdraw its troops from well-fortified positions. As a result, the German army was pushed back to its last fortified defensive line Antwerp - Brussels - Namur - Mezieres - Metz - Strasbourg.

Marshal Ferdinand Foch brought military operations to their logical conclusion - in November 1918, the Allies forced Germany to ask for peace by force. The truce concluded on November 11 was signed under unprecedentedly difficult conditions for Germany. It was the commander-in-chief of the armies of the Entente who dictated them as a winner.

In 1919, Marshal Foch was appointed President of the French Higher Military Council, the same year he received the rank of Field Marshal of the British Royal Army. As Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Armies of the Entente, history entrusted him to put last point in the First World War.

On June 28, 1919, a treaty was signed at Versailles that ended the First World War. This agreement was signed by the leaders of France, Great Britain, the USA, Italy and Japan, as well as Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Hijaz, Honduras, Liberia, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, the Serbo-Croat-Slovenian state, Siam, Czechoslovakia and Uruguay, on the one hand, and capitulated Germany, on the other.

The terms of this treaty were worked out after lengthy secret negotiations and consultations in Paris conference 1919-1920, in which Marshal Ferdinand Foch took an active part. The treaty entered into force in early January 1920 only after it had been ratified by Germany and the four major allied powers: Britain, France, Italy and Japan. The US refused to ratify the treaty, not wanting to associate itself with the League of Nations.

Under the Treaty of Versailles, Germany returned Alsace and Lorraine to France within the borders of 1870; Belgium - the districts of Malmedy and Eupen, as well as the so-called neutral and Prussian parts of Morena; Poland - Poznan, part of Pomerania and part of East Prussia; the city of Danzig and its district was declared a free city; the city of Memel - placed at the disposal of the victorious powers (in February 1923 it was annexed to Lithuania). As a result of the referendum, part of Schleswig in 1920 passed to Denmark, part of Upper Silesia - to Poland (in 1921), a small section of Silesia went to Czechoslovakia. The Saarland came under the control of the League of Nations for 15 years, and its coal mines were handed over to France.

Under the Treaty of Versailles, Germany pledged to strictly observe the independence of Austria, Poland and Czechoslovakia. The German part of the left bank of the Rhine and a strip of the right bank 50 kilometers wide (the so-called Rhine zone) were subject to demilitarization. Germany also lost all its colonial possessions, divided among the main victorious powers.

According to Article 116 of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany recognized "the independence of the territories that were part of the former Russian Empire by August 1, 1914", as well as the abolition of the conditions of the Brest separate peace and all other treaties concluded by Germany already with Soviet Russia.

As chairman of the Supreme Military Council of the Entente, Marshal Foch became one of the organizers of the military intervention against Soviet Russia in the years civil war. However, he did not know well the true situation in the former Russian Empire. In addition, Foch sought to use in the intervention more troops from Japan and the United States than from France and Great Britain.

Under the leadership of Marshal Ferdinand Foch, the Entente carried out several operations against Soviet Russia, the rebellion Czechoslovak Corps in the summer of 1918, the French military expedition to Ukraine and the Crimea in early 1919, the mission of General Janin to Siberia in 1919-1920. The continuation of the anti-Soviet intervention was the suppression of the Hungarian Revolution of 1919 and the Weygand mission in the summer of 1920 during the Red Army's counteroffensive against Warsaw.

Marshal Foch contributed to the fact that the Soviet-Polish war ended not in favor of Moscow. That is why he was awarded in 1923 the highest Polish military rank- Marshal of Poland. It was he who, at the Versailles Conference in 1919, demanded the strengthening of Poland as a counterbalance to Soviet Russia.

Foch entered military history, along with Joffre, as a prominent commander of the First World War and the largest French military theorist of the early 20th century. Marshal Foch wrote "Memoirs (the war of 1914-1918)", which were published in many languages, including in the USSR in 1939.

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LASSALLE FERDINAND (born in 1825 - died in 1864) Founder of the revolutionary labor movement in Europe, theorist of European socialism. Ferdinand Lassalle was born on April 11, 1825 in Breslau, the city where his father, a wealthy Jew, was a wholesaler. At 15, Ferdinand

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From the book The Book of Masks the author Gourmont Remy de

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From the book of Ferdinand Porsche author Nadezhdin Nikolay Yakovlevich

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18. Son Ferdinand On September 19, 1909, five years after the birth of his daughter Louise, the Porsche family was replenished. A son was born, whom they decided to call Ferdinand. Such was the tradition of this family - many of its members bore the names of their ancestors.

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53. Ferdinand and Adolf 1932 was also a turning point in German history. The Nazis came to power in the country of Goethe and Schiller ... Adolf Hitler loved cars, although he never learned to drive a car himself. His favorite car was the Horch. But imagining himself the "father of the nation",

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65. "Leopard" and "Ferdinand" During the war years, the Porsche bureau prepared for the release of several cars that were never put on the conveyor. The first of these is a 30-ton Leopard tank with a hybrid gasoline-electric power plant. The car turned out to be big, heavy and

From the author's book

81. Old Ferdinand Porsche It was early autumn 1948. The large Porsche family gathered at the dining table of a large house near the former sawmill, in which the ruins of their former design office now rested ... The father sat at the head of the table. He was usually silent.

Ferdinand Foch (fr. Ferdinand Foch, October 2, 1851, Tarbes March 20, 1929, Paris) French military leader, Marshal of France (August 6, 1918). In 1870 he was enrolled in the infantry, participated in the Franco-Prussian war. Soon he entered the Higher ... ... Wikipedia

FOS- (Foch) Ferdinand (1851 1929), French military figure and theorist, Marshal of France (1918), British Field Marshal (1919), Marshal of Poland (1923). In World War I, he commanded a corps, army, army group, in 1917 18 chief of the general staff, with ... ... Modern Encyclopedia

Foch- Ferdinand (Foch) (1851 1929). French military figure, marshal. During the First World War, the commander of the French armies, then the chief of the General Staff of France, the supreme commander of the armed forces of the Entente. In 1918 1920. one of… … 1000 biographies

Foch- a nickname * A woman is a nickname of the same type, like in one, so in a plurality they do not change ... Spelling Dictionary of Ukrainian Movies

FOS- Federal operational headquarters since May 2006 as part of the NAC (National Anti-Terrorist Committee of Russia) of the Russian Federation Source: http://www.iamik.ru/?op=full&what=content&ident=27994 … Dictionary of abbreviations and abbreviations

Foch F.- Foch (Foch) Ferdinand (18511929), Marshal of France (1918), Eng. field marshal (1919), marshal of Poland (1923). In the 1st world. the war commanded a corps, the 9th French. army, army group. In 191718 early. French General Staff. From Apr. 1918 top… … Biographical Dictionary

foch- [فاش] oshkoro, zohir; mashhurshuda, maruf; foch gardidan (shudan) oshkor shudan, ba hama ma'lum gardidan, intishore yoftan; foch guftan sukhanero be for oshkoro bayon cardan: foch cardan oshkor cardan, kushoda ba maydon nihodan, pahn cardan (sirre, habarero) ... Farhangi tafsiria zaboni tojiki

Foch- (Foch) Ferdinand (October 2, 1851, Tarbes, - March 20, 1929, Paris), Marshal of France (1918), Brit. field marshal (1919) and marshal of Poland (1923), member of the French Academy (1918). Since 1873 artillery officer. Graduated from the Higher Military Academy in France ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Foch- (Hippolyte Fauche, 1797-1869) French orientalist. Carried away by Sanskrit poetry, he set out to acquaint the public with the best works of unfamiliar literature. He started by translating shorter pieces: Gita Govinda and Ritou Sanhara... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron

FOS- (Foch), Ferdinand (2.X.1851 20.III.1929) French. military activist, marshal of France (1918) and Poland, Brit. field marshal; member French Academy of Sciences (1920). Since 1873 art. Officer. He graduated from the military. Academy (1887), in which was prof. in 1895 1900, and in 1907 11 her ... ... Soviet historical encyclopedia

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Foch decided to link his fate with the French army and entered the School of Applied Artillery. The junior officer moved up the ranks fairly quickly. In 1887 he graduated from the Higher Military Academy of France.

In 1895 he returned to the Military Academy as a teacher of military history and strategy, soon becoming a professor.

In 1907, Ferdinand Foch was promoted to brigadier general and until 1911 served as head of the French Military Academy.

In 1911, Foch received another general rank and was appointed commander of an army division, and in 1912 - commander of the 8th corps in Bourges, in 1913 - commander of the 20th corps in Nancy. In this position, he met the First World War.

The corps of General Foch covered the approaches to the Mert River near the city of Nancy, thanks to which Nancy managed to defend.

Soon the army group was transformed into the 9th French Army, and General Foch received it under his command. This army distinguished itself in the battle on the Marne River in September 1914, when it withstood the onslaught of two German armies - the 2nd and 3rd. Despite heavy losses, the troops of General Ferdinand Foch again saved the city of Nancy from the Germans.

After the Battle of Ypres, when positional warfare was finally established on the Western Front, General Foch commanded Army Group North in 1915-1916. He led the offensive operation in Artois (spring and autumn 1915), and also participated in the battle on the Somme (July - November 1916), which ended in victory for the Germans. The allied troops he commanded suffered huge losses. As a result, Ferdinand Foch was relieved of his post.

In May 1917, General Ferdinand Foch was appointed Chief of the General Staff under the French Minister of War. At the end of this year, he was sent to Italy.

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On November 6 and 7, 1917, General Ferdinand Foch participated in the anti-German conference in Rapallo near Genoa, at which it was decided to form the Allied Supreme Council (Entente), which was the first step towards unifying the command.

At the end of January 1918, General Foch was appointed chairman of the Allied Military Committee, as he enjoyed great prestige among the high military command of the Entente countries.

As Commander-in-Chief of the Entente armies, Marshal Ferdinand Foch made a great contribution to the victory of the allied states over the coalition of the Central Powers led by Imperial Germany.

The French commander, having carefully studied the bitter experience of the first years of the World War, managed to correctly plan the course of further hostilities on the Western Front. First of all, he streamlined the use of reserves, which allowed the Allies to stop the German offensive in Picardy.

When making strategic decisions, Marshal Foch had to take into account the peculiarities of the French theater of operations: the accumulation of millions of fighting people in a relatively narrow space, the fettering influence of positional warfare and the heap of all kinds of military equipment.

This was not the case in any of the last great European wars. Foch was greatly helped by his theoretical developments, which he did during his stay at the Military Academy. The Commander-in-Chief was well aware that, unlike the Russian Front, maneuvering operations on the Western Front after the start of a positional war were simply impossible.

The last military campaign of the First World War lasted about eight months. From March to July 1918, German troops carried out their last active offensive operations, threatening to break through to Paris and the seaside city of Calais. A crisis situation for the Allies was brewing on the Western Front. In May, the Germans defeated the French army at Chemin des Dames.

The commander-in-chief of the allied armies, Marshal Foch, with enviable equanimity, led the fighting on the Western Front, and the German offensive, having once again encountered a strong positional defense of the enemy, gradually fizzled out. During the second battle on the Marne River, the allied forces under the command of Marshal Foch bled the German armies advancing towards Paris, Field Marshal Hindenburg. After that, the allied forces themselves launched a counteroffensive in the Aisne-Marne region and restored the situation on the Western Front.

Marshal Ferdinand Foch brought military action to its logical conclusion - in November 1918, the Allies forced Germany to ask for peace by force. The armistice concluded on November 11 was signed under conditions that were unprecedentedly difficult for Germany. It was the commander-in-chief of the armies of the Entente who dictated them as a winner.

In 1919, Marshal Foch was appointed President of the French Higher Military Council, the same year he received the rank of Field Marshal of the British Royal Army. He, as the commander-in-chief of the allied armies of the Entente, was entrusted by history to put the last point in the First World War.

As chairman of the Supreme Military Council of the Entente, Marshal Foch became one of the organizers of the military intervention against Soviet Russia during the Civil War. However, he did not know well the true situation in the former Russian Empire. In addition, Foch sought to use in the intervention more troops from Japan and the United States than from France and Great Britain.

Under the leadership of Marshal Ferdinand Foch, the Entente carried out several operations against Soviet Russia: the rebellion of the Czechoslovak corps in the summer of 1918, the French military expedition to Ukraine and the Crimea in early 1919, the mission of General Janin to Siberia in 1919-1920. The continuation of the anti-Soviet intervention was the suppression of the Hungarian Revolution of 1919 and the Weygand mission in the summer of 1920 during the counter-offensive of the Red Army against Warsaw.

Marshal Foch contributed to the fact that the Soviet-Polish war ended not in favor of Moscow. That is why he was awarded in 1923 the highest Polish military rank - Marshal of Poland. It was he who, at the Versailles Conference in 1919, demanded the strengthening of Poland as a counterbalance to Soviet Russia.

Foch entered military history, along with Joffre, as a prominent commander of the First World War and the largest French military theorist of the early 20th century. Marshal Foch wrote "Memoirs (the war of 1914-1918)", which were published in many languages, including in the USSR in 1939.

Foch Ferdinand is one of the most famous French generals. He took part in two wars. Empires collapsed around Ferdinand, revolutions took place, millions died.

In addition to successes on the battlefield, the marshal made a significant contribution to the development of military affairs. His works are still being studied in the world.

Foch Ferdinand: a short biography

Ferdinand was born on October 2, 1851 in Tarbes. His parents were very wealthy officials and played important role in the life of the city. Therefore, Foch received a good education, by the standards of that time. He studied at school, and after graduation he entered the Jesuit College in Saint-Étienne.

In 1869, the reform of the army in the country began. The government and the emperor understand the danger looming over France because of Prussia and are trying to quickly prepare for a possible war. Foch Ferdinand is drafted into an infantry regiment, in which he has served since 1870.

Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871)

Prussia prepared for war in advance and thought through every step. The French emperor was unable to adequately assess the situation and himself fell into the trap set by Bismarck. launched an offensive in July. and allied German states were well trained and equipped the latest species weapons, while the French army did not have time to properly prepare and, in fact, was taken by surprise.

Already by the fall they laid siege to Paris. Foch Ferdinand fought on the front lines. The balance of forces was approximately the same, but the French army consisted mainly of fighters from the reserve units and a hastily recruited militia. Therefore, the superiority of the regular German army was obvious. And in 1871, Napoleon III signed a shameful surrender, according to which France was obliged to pay huge indemnities to Prussia.

Scientific activity

After the war, Foch Ferdinand decides not to follow in his father's footsteps, but to continue military career. At the age of twenty he enters the Higher Polytechnic School. However, Ferdinand failed to finish it. In 1873, the army of the French Republic experienced an acute shortage of personnel. Therefore, even the Polytechnic School, Foch receives the rank of lieutenant of artillery. Serving in the 24th Artillery Regiment.

Four years later he graduated from the Academy at the General Staff. Starts scientific activity. He studies the strategy and tactics of warfare. In 1895 he became a professor and began teaching at the academy, which he graduated from not so long ago. Of particular interest to Ferdinand is the study of Napoleon Bonaparte's strategy.

He will improve the tactics of warfare, taking into account modern methods waging war. Continues to detail decisive battles Franco-Prussian War, in which he himself took part. In 1908 he became head of the Academy at the General Staff.

Foch is engaged research work in military history and tactics. Two years after receiving a high post, he is sent to Russian empire to take part in the maneuvers.

In 1912 Foch Ferdinand became commander of the 8th Army Corps. The memoirs of the marshal of his associates contain information that he was very nervous when taking on a new position. But a year later he was entrusted with a more combat-ready formation - the twentieth army corps.

The beginning of the First World

Ferdinand Foch met the great war in Nancy. Its fighters almost from the first days took part in the hostilities. The first blow of the German Empire fell on the territory of Belgium. Initially, the country declared its neutrality, but the French assumed that it was through Belgium that the invasion would begin. Ferdinand Foch repeatedly pointed out the weakness of the Franco-Belgian border.

And it was there that the German army hit. A group of one and a half million people captured Belgium in a matter of days and advanced towards the French border. If not heroic defense Liege, the Allied armies simply would not have had time to redeploy from eastern border. Ferdinand Foch commanded the twentieth army corps. Immediately after the start of the war, his fighters invaded the territory of Lorraine. This area was taken from France as a result of the Franco-Prussian War. And its at least partial capture, according to the plan of the General Staff, was supposed to increase the morale of the soldiers. And in the beginning, everything went well enough. However, in mid-September the Germans counter-attacked and drove the French back to the border.

State of the army

Even on the eve of the war, more and more supporters of the radical reform of the army appeared in France, among whom was Foch Ferdinand. Professor's quotes were published on the front pages of newspapers. But conservatives did not want to change traditions. The German army was completely re-equipped and strategic decisions were made based on the capabilities of the new weapons.

France still underestimated the power of artillery. The forts were outdated, and the generals did not want to change the usual way of life in their units. The most significant point is the use of the old form. and Austria-Hungary switched to inconspicuous gray or brown uniforms, while the uniform of the French army included red trousers and blue coats. In the early days of the fighting, officers went into battle wearing white gloves and dress uniforms, becoming easy targets in their bright outfits. Therefore, the general took up the urgent reform of the army.

Army reforms

In all parts, soldiers began to hastily "dress up", French engineers desperately tried to increase the number of modern weapons. Already in early September, one of the largest battles of the first year of the war began - the battle on the Marne.

The French strike force was commanded by Foch Ferdinand. The marshal's memories of those events are filled with the atmosphere of disorder and turmoil in which the soldiers were. Due to the lack of means of transportation, taxis were delivered to the battlefield for many soldiers. But this battle made it possible to stop the advance of the Germans and start an exhausting positional war, which would end only after four years.

End of the war

By the spring of 1918, Marshal Ferdinand Foch was the head of the French Armed Forces. It was he who signed which put an end to the First World War. It happened on the eleventh of November in the carriage of a private train.

After the war, he was engaged in the improvement of military tactics and strategy. Prepared intervention on the territory of Soviet Russia.

On March 20, 1929, Ferdinand Foch died in Paris. A monument to the commander is installed in the Parisian Les Invalides.