Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

Foch the Man - A Life of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Armies by Clara E. Laughlin
page 42 of 128 (32%)
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.
DigitalOcean Referral Badge