Photograph of Marshal Ferdinand Foch and General John Pershing meeting at Chaumont, General Headquarters on June 17, 1918.
Marshall Foch and General Pershing at Chaumont G.H.Q.
"June 27 thus marked the final step in Foch's rise to power. Like previous selections of Joffre, Nivelle, and Pétain, Foch's elevation had a profound effect on French strategy, operations, and doctrine. The day after the War Committee met, Foch sent Pétain a letter that began, 'It is important to envisage henceforth the resumption of the offensive by the allied armies in 1918 as soon as means permit.' Bowing to Foch's new powers, on July 2 Pétain sent his army-group commanders a copy of Foch's memorandum of June 16 on doctrine. Neither Foch nor Pétain realized how close they were to the end of the war."
Joseph Joffre, Robert Nivelle, and Henri Philippe Pétain were the Commanders-in-Chief of the French Army during the war. Ferdinand Foch path to becoming Allied Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Armies began in late 1917 as the French and British Prime Ministers Georges Clemenceau and David Lloyd George struggled to guide military policy after a year that saw the disasters of the Nivelle Offensive, the French army mutinies, and the Battle of Passchendaele. Foch consistently pressed for a unified command and reserve force that could seize the offensive when the opportunity presented itself. Foch's rise was incremental, but after four German spring 1918 offensives that stunned first the British and then the French, the French, British, American, and Italian civilian and military leaders agreed the role required authority to command and not simply coordinate.
Pyrrhic Victory; French Strategy and Operations in the Great War by Robert A. Doughty, page 460, copyright © 2005 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College, publisher: Harvard University Press, publication date: 2005
1918-06-27, 1918, June, Joffre, Nivelle, Pétain, Petain, Foch, Joffre, Joseph Joffre, Nivelle, Robert Nivelle, Henri Philippe Pétain, Henri Petain, Petain, Ferdinand, Foch, Foch
