Allied Commanders Henri Philippe Pétain, Douglas Haig, Ferdinand Foch, and John J. Pershing. Foch was Allied Commander in Chief, the other men commanders of the French Army, the British Expeditionary Force, and the American Expeditionary Force respectively. From The Memoirs of Marshall Foch by Marshall Foch.
Commanders of the Allies in 1918 and their autographs.Pétain Haig Foch Pershing
"December 17th.—The C.O.'s sickness and removal to hospital was a misfortune. The Commmander-in-Chief's quite-looked-for-supersession stirred no outward sign of regret. Cavalryman to cavalryman succeeds: Haig to French."
Beginning of the entry for December 17, 1915 from the writings — diaries, letters, and memoirs — of Captain J.C. Dunn, Medical Officer of the Second Battalion His Majesty's Twenty-Third Foot, The Royal Welch Fusiliers. General Douglas Haig had been working to replace Sir John French, commander of the British Expeditionary Force, the British Empire forces fighting in France and Belgium, and learned on December 10, in a letter from Prime Minister Asquith, that he had succeeded: French had resigned on the 8th. The British defeats in the battles of Neuve Chappelle and Loos, Haig's friendship with King George, and his superior political skills ensured Sir John French's forced resignation. That both men were cavalrymen commanding an army that was entrenched was an irony not lost on the men under their command.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 172, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
1915-12-17, 1915, December, Haig, John French, Sir John French
