When he was in command
at Nancy and elsewhere he used to work his staffs hard, and they had to
share much of the monotony of work which has been chiefly Foch's life.
He did not go in for society, merely making the formal calls required by
the etiquette of garrison towns on the chief garrison hostesses, and
giving dinners two or three times a year to his staff.
Foch, indeed, with his quiet ways and his hard work and his studying of
Napoleon and Caesar, was characterized by some of the officers of the
army as a pedant, a theorist, and these held that Foch had small chance
of doing anything important in such a practical realm as that of real
war.
Because of his Directorship of the Ecole de Guerre he was known to many
officers, but as far as France at large was concerned his name was
scarcely known at all last August. Yet officers knew him in other lands
besides his own. His two great books, "Principles of War" and "Conduct
of War," have been translated into English, German, and Italian, and are
highly regarded by military men. He has been ranked by the
Militaer-Wochenblatt, organ of the German General Staff, as one of the
few strategists of first class ability among the Allies.
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