Foch the Man - A Life of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Armies by Clara E. Laughlin
page 42 of 128 (32%)
page 42 of 128 (32%)
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JOFFRE AND FOCH
After quitting the School of War in 1887 (he graduated fourth in his class, as he had at Saumur; he was third at Fontainebleau), Ferdinand Foch was sent to Montpellier as a probationer for the position of staff officer. He remained at Montpellier for four years--first as a probationer and later as a staff officer in the Sixteenth Army Corps, whose headquarters are there. [Illustration: Marshall Joffre, General Foch] It is a coincidence--without special significance, but interesting--that Captain Joseph Joffre had spent several years at the School of Engineering in Montpellier; he left there in 1884, after the death of his young wife, to bury himself and his grief in Indo-China; so the two men did not meet in the southern city.[1] Joffre returned from Indo-China in 1888, while Foch was at Montpellier, and after some time in the military railway service, and a promotion in rank (he was captain for thirteen years), received an appointment as professor of fortifications at Fontainebleau. Some persons who claim to have known Joffre at Montpellier have manifested surprise at the greatness to which he attained thirty years later; he did not impress them as a man of destiny. That is quite as likely to be their fault as his. And also it is possible that Captain Joseph Joffre had not then begun to develop in himself those qualities which made him ready for greatness when the opportunity came. |
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