Detail of a German postcard map of the Western Front, showing the northwestern end of the line and the Channel coast. German forces occupied Ostend, Belgian and Allied forces Nieuport. The Belgian Government was based in Furnes (Veurne).
Westl. Kriegsschauplatzes3. Dover-Calais-ParisFestungen, Forts, EisenbahnWestern Front3. Dover-Calais-ParisFortresses, Forts, Railroads
"As opposed to a single German battle, two distinct battles were being fought by the Allies: a British battle for the ports, and a French battle for Paris. These were carried on separately and farther and farther away from one another. The Allied commanders thus tended to emphasize the separation of their armies, the primary object of the German operations. And they risked rendering the separation absolute. Unless the Allied governments, upon whom rested most of the responsibility for what was happening, intervened quickly and energetically, we were marching towards certain defeat. It was their duty to clearly indicate that the interests of the Coalition came before everything else; the only way to do this was to create and place over their armies in the field an organ which would take in hand the safeguarding of the common interests and direct the united resources of both partners."
French General Ferdinand Foch on the need for a unified command and a general reserve that could take advantage of opportunities to seize the offensive, a position he advocated at a January 30—February 2, 1918 meeting of Allied prime ministers at Versailles and at a March 13 through 15 conference in London. Germany's Operation Michael threatened to separate the French and British, with British commander Douglas Haig retreating to the relative safety of the English Channel ports and evacuation, and French commander Henri Philippe Pétain pulling back to defend Paris.
The Memoirs of Marshal Foch, translated by Col. T. Bentley Mott by Ferdinand Foch, page 258, copyright © 1931 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., publisher: Doubleday, Doran & Co., publication date: 1931
1918-03-24, 1918, March, Henri Philippe Pétain, Henri Philippe Petain, Pétain, Petain, Douglas Haig, Haig, unified command, Channel ports, Paris, map, Western Front, Dover, Calais, Furnes, Veurne, O
