Evening Star Newspaper, May 8, 1929, Page 20

FOCH DESCRBES " SECOND ENPIR Mistakes of Commanders in| War of 1870 Pointed Out by General. t Bugnet, aide-de-camp to the at hal Foeh from_ June, 1921, the death,” gives in his book. “Foch Talks,” intimate and Tevealing conversations with the man ¥ho commanded the allied forces in the World War. _Marshal Foch knew and Commandan! e s that the book t cation until his death in order to escap: merica. wspaper incorporating the most_important parts of BY COMMANDANT BUGNET. Written exclusively for The Star and the North' American Newspaper Alliance. “The Second Empire was brilliant!” Marshal Foch said, telling of his early | career. “Make no mistake about it! It was smart! Never more so! Have you read ‘Le Desastre’ by the brothers Margueritte? That gave you the Army of the Empire to the life. “Fine fellows, fine talkers, elegance, ffervescence, and so worth nothing. The leaders knew how to make war as well as elephants know how to climb B ladder. No one in command. The leaders were never there! “The colonel? Good, at most, for the command of a company! And even more! For walking in front and ery- Ing ‘Forward’ with a cigar in his mouth. | They followed him. ¥ | “Brave? Certainly they were brave. | Very! But bravery is quite beside the | point. They were soldiers, fine soldiers. | but not leaders. What is required of | leaders is that they should command.| i | Strutting About Not Enough. | «“They were mot stupid, they were| gven intelligent. Very genteel,” plenty of go, plenty of good humor. But it 1s not enough to strut about and march past in brilliant style.” | As early as his first maneuvers with | this regiment, he realized that “all that | ought not, to be as it was.” They did| not know how to make a body of men | march; they did not know any’of the elementary precautions to take to in-} sure safety; they were entirely ignorant of their profession; the leaders did not ¥now how to command, 8nd, further, they did not attempt to do it. It was always the Army of the Second Empire. “why! In 1870 the 5th Army Corps tinder De Failly received on August 4 the order to support, with the two divi- sions which were at Sarreguemines, at which was at Bitche. ! m"They had just heard of the defeat At Wissembourg and they were fearing an attack from Alsace. Instead of pro- ceeding to Bitche according to orders, the G. O, C. of the 5th Army Corps Jet himself be stopped by a threat of a ‘handful of patrols and refused to aban- don Sarreguemines. ‘Worn Out on Arrival. «Ihe 1st Division set off alone to get u’{:‘r as possible. The first day they did seven kilometers. The next day without either advanced guard or flank: ers, it took the whole day to manage 22 'kilometers, and they arrived worn t. w“The same day, a brigade of the 2nd Division had nevertheless left Sarre- emines but got no further than Rohr- Ech. because the night before a regi- ter. “A$ ‘a result, on the evening of the Bth, the Army Corps which oaght to and could have joined it at Bitchie was spread out over the 35 kilometers sej that town from Sarregue- There you have the result of false theories, individual views, igno- Fance of the right precautions. “The same evening MacMahon tele- mphed to Gen. De Failly: ‘Come to ischoffen as quickly as possible with all your nmx"coms.’ ‘That ;;5 :ge same thing. every crossroads the column haited. They searched the country on front and flank with cavalry pnd sometimes with infantry. Division Getting Into Tangle. “During this time the whole division ‘was getting into a tangle. Officers and men, excited by the cannonade, were growing impatient with these delays. They began to meet wounded men and Sugitives. “When they arrived it was the full tide of retreat they met in the town. The division under Guyot de Lespaz had taken more than nine hours—from %:30 in the morning until 5 in the afternoon—to cover the 22 kilometers between Bitche and Niederborn. It prought troops physically and morally exhausted. Above all, it brought useless troops. The 5th Army Corps was en- tirely absent at the meeting place ar- ganged. | “The battle was lost by its fault. The 'hhigher command of this 5th Army rps was not a special case in our v; it was simply typical of its time d spirit . . . “The higher command, that was the cipal thing; our misfortune is that e are short of leaders. Yes! Even in the Army! They know their profession, ‘but nothing else. It is the fault of a general mental indolence. They do not work, they do not keep themselves up to the mark. They dare not take gesponsibility. They ought to prepare themselves to occupy important posi- tions. They do nothing. They are in ® groove. They stick in the rut. They realize it themselves. But it would re- juire an effort to get out of it, and their mental indolence prevents them, ©One must work. The lack of leaders, “Foch Taiks” | | i ment -of cavalry had’ crossed the fron-| THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, forces itself upon him as clearly as the plan he must follow to prepare himself for command. There were no irremediable defeats for those who know how to discover their causes and to account for them. How to Find Road Was Problem. All the same, how was a young officer, for all his zeal and willingness, going to find the true road through so many false theories? At that time there was no rational and practical instruction. They fully admitted that moral power might play & part in war, but they systematically discarded it, believing it not_susceptible to investigation. “Defeat was thought to be a con- dition constituted solely by material losses, whereas it is, on the contrary, a purely moral result caused by the discouragement and fear infused into the loser by the combined and simul- | taneous employment of moral and ma- | terial forces on the part of the victor.” | ““As for the most important data of | the problem, whether it is a question of the higher command or of the fulfill- | ment, that which inspires and keeps | alive the subject; the man with his { moral, intellectual and physical gifts | ... he was left on one side! It was the triumph of the school of thought— “War is learned only by war.” “Clearly one cannot deny the value | of the experience furnished by such an | apprenticeship. nor the special stamp given to the mind and character by tho habit of taking decisions in the presence of a real enemy who delivers blows | against_you, but’ that school is not a | school in the real sense of the word: it is not a school one can open or | carry on by our mere theoretical in- | struction.” “And yet the proofs lay to hand: The Austrians in 1866, although they had made war a few years earlier in 1859, were beaten by the Prussians who themselves had had no war since 1815. “The former made war without understanding it (like the French in 1870 who had had plenty of war-like experience); the latter understood 1t without having practical _experience, but they devoted study to it.” History Gives Suggestions. The method of learning then forces itself upon our attention: “To main- tain the mental vitality of an army in time of peace, to compel its thoughts constantly in the direction of war, there is no book more fertile in sug- gestions than the book of history. For 15 years. he devoted him: an apprenticeship to his profession, reading widely to increase his knowl- edge, thinking deeply to assimilate it. In 1885 he entered the Stafl College. Passing out he was appointed to the army corps at Montpellier. But al- ready he had been noticed, and one of his former commanders, Maj. Delanne, invited him to join him in the third section of the Army General Staff. “At that time they were still rather old- fashioned!” And now he appeared with his individual ideas. He had al- ready character and authority. “I was regarded as a revolutionary there; I wrote brief orders, I did not fill up all the pigeonholes; they eriti- cized me. I replied: ‘Have I put in every Hair Goods . 5% off L°’Adoria—Two strands of Hair easily draped into many at- tractive styles —regu- larly $5; sale price, $3.75. La Charmion—A chic “Bun” to cover the growing ends—regular- ly $3.50; sale price, $2.62. L’Enchante—A smart cluster 'which hides those annoying ends ' | completely — regularly | $5: sale price, $3.75. Transformations —DBeautifully made, light - weight — natural parted at 25% off the regular pric | Powder Box Fifth Floor TarE et Co. ghat is the trouble.” Then he must become a leader. henceforth the goal So he must reach F St. at Seventh ALL HONOR TO OUR MOTHERS We Set Aside Next Sunday, May 12, as their “DAY” Play the Songs she loves on your ORTHOPHONIC VICTROLA —and thereby pay her some of the homage that is her right. Mother Dear Henry Burr Rags— Henry Burr Mother (My Mary- Jand)— Evelvn Herbert Silver Moon (My Mary- Jand)— Evelyn Herbert Mother, My Dear— John McCormack Brown Bird Singi John McCor Mother of Mine, I Still H: Silver-Masked Tenor tormy Weather \ Iver-Masked Tenor 1300 G St. We Suggest These— 1286 Mother O’ Mi s 8150 Dream— My Mother's Eyes— 21852 G 5e When the Curtain ~ Comes Down— George Jessel Mother's Prayers iave 1340 Followed M $1.50 Marion Talley Dream Mother— Gene Austin Garden in the Ra Gene Austin 21915 T3¢ } A OP’S MUSIC HOUSE Steinway Pianos 1f to | - point?” Yes!” “Well, then, do you want?" “The next year, in 1891, there were Autumn maneucers; oh; those Autymn maneuvers; Naturally, they were to | end with a review. I was appointed to organize it. “I astonished them. No one had ever succeeded before in massing more mere pocket handkerchief! Marching Order Changed. “I made them march past by army corps. At 8 o'clock there wasn't even a cat on the parade ground. At 10 minutes past there were 100,000 men. They came up from all sides, in col- umns, not in extended line. quarter of an hour after the review the parade\ ground was absolutely empty. Every detachment had its own route to its entraining station. . . . Like a flight of sparrows!” For the first time since 1870 the French army had thus demonstrated the progress made during the last 20 be well trained, keen, provided with per- fect arms and equipment, led by excel- lent officers and displaying the most admirable discipline; in a word, a for- midable_instrument of war. In 1895 he was appointed lecturer in { the course of military history, strategy |and tactics held at the Staff Colleg His own work, his historical studies, his | growing _rcputation all marked him out for the post. He saw in it only a reason for work- ing still harder, since in order to teach you must be “well up in your subject,” and nothing more irresistibly compels you to get to the very bottom of that subject than the necessity of expound- ing and teaching it to others.” When in the following year on the departure of Col. Bonnal, the chief lecturer in the course, it was suggested that he should take his place, he ob- jected at first that he was not yet sufficiently_sure of his principles. So | ‘iffident does real distinction make | one. But no attention was paid to his | depreciation. Rises in Full Flight. Then it was that he spread his wings. He rose in full flight, higher and higher. It was a revelation. Those principles that he was still seeking he was now to elaborate by teaching them in his own lectures, in ' Thursday Luncheon in The Hecht Co. Fountain Room (Nunnally Operated) 50¢ Cold Sliced Ham Loaf Potato Salad Stuffed Olives Rolls and Butter Apricot- Sponge Tea, Coffee or Milk Tar Hecuz Co. Downstairs Store—The Hecht Co. than 100,000 men on a rectangle 120 | meters broad and 100 meters long—a | And a | | years of hard work, showing iteelf to | what more{whlch he was to study them with a | | | | | | not mean anything, for bats are not OLD-TIME HEIRLOOMS. Two Gold Coins Believed to Date Back 1,900 Years. PROVIDENCE, R. I, (®—The Nu- mismatic Society of New York City has been called upon to assist in determin- ing the origin of two small gold coins owned by Dr. Ignazio Verde, who be- lieves they were struck about 35 years after the deagh of Christ. One of the pieces is marked by a cross on one side and a face, full view, with helmit on the other, It is a thin coin about the size of a quarter dollar. The other coin is thicker and smaller. One side bears the imprint of a cross surrounded by characters. Its other surface is blocked into several sections, each containing a letter apparently of | some ancient language. Dr. Verde is unable to say how long the coins have been in the family. His forbears lived in Torio D'Ischia freedom from preconceptions, an ability in analysis, a gift for synthesis, and so burning a conviction it could almost | be seen coming to birth in his thoughts as they defined and unfolded them- selves in luminous phrases and in- vincible arguments. For it was no spontaneous creation; it was an evolution. As a foreword to his “Principles of War,” he inscribed these words of Napoleon: “It is not a puiding spirit that reveals to me secretly | in a flash what I must say or do, but | thought and reflection.” i | (Copyright, 1929. by North American News- paper Alliance.) (In his next article Commandant | Bugnet tells of Marshal Foch's experi- | ences at the Stafl College. Blind as a Brick-Bat. The expression “blind as a bat” does | blind. It is thought that it is a corrup- tion of “blind as a brick bat.” All bats | have eves, but they are apparently em- | barrassed in a glare of light. It is a | question whether they are not endowed | with another sense of which we know nothing, for they seem to be able to | wind their way among objects in the $3.25 Chester i‘l:;kfl:;:::loub seeing or actually touch- | s3.°° wnllllll'tfill Il | AND RETURN Another Place to Eat | | Next Sunday, May 12 ‘Dine at the Crown Restaurant Lv. Washington 7:35 - Table d’ Hote Dinners 4r. Philadelphia 4 to 8 PM. RETURNING 65 Cents and $1.00 . Philadelphia . Che: A la Carte Service L. Wilmington 7 AM. to 8 P.M. (Standard Time) S The Avenue Crown Tl D 1727 Pa. Ave. | $3.50 Philadelphia IMPORTANT EVENT We Now Offer Our Entire Spring Stock of FUR-TRIMMED DRESSZNCDOATS Cloth Ensembles AT DECIDED REDUCTIONS TWELVE-TEN TWELVE-TWELVE F STREET Tar Hecar Co. 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