Zweibund — the Dual Alliance — Germany and Austria-Hungary united, were the core of the Central Powers, and here join hands. The bars of Germany's flag border the top left, and those of the Habsburg Austrian Empire and ruling house the bottom right.
Schulter an SchulterUntrennbar vereintin Freud und in Leid!'Shoulder to shoulderInseparably united in joy and in sorrow!
". . . Under the circumstances now prevailing and in the presence of an enemy organization long since established, it seems wise not to base all our hopes upon the possibility of breaking through, or risk all our available reserves in an attempt to effect a victorious and decisive piercing of the line by mere force of numbers. On the contrary, our plan should be directed towards the conquest of certain dominant points of the terrain; each one of our attacks should have a distinct object, and one whose accomplishment would lead to some further result."
General Ferdinand Foch writing to French Commander in Chief Joseph Joffre in a paper dated July 19, 1915. Both sides had hoped for a breakthrough of the enemy lines as the path to victory — a breakthrough that Germany had achieved in Russia in the Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive even as Foch was writing. Foch was concluding that a general offensive on a broad front that aimed—or hoped-for a breakthrough was inadequate. The fighting the First and Second Battles of Artois earlier in 1915 had led to heavy losses for the Allies.
The Memoirs of Marshal Foch, translated by Col. T. Bentley Mott by Ferdinand Foch, page 209, copyright © 1931 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., publisher: Doubleday, Doran & Co., publication date: 1931
1915-07-19, 1915, July, Foch, Ferdinand Foch, strategy
