“My center is giving way; my right is in retreat. Situation excellent. I am attacking.”
That was the message sent back from the front lines in WWI by French General Ferdinand Foch. Surprisingly enough, Foch won that battle.
Ferdinand Foch is perhaps best known for the prophetic words he uttered upon seeing the Treaty of Versailles. “This isn’t peace. It’s an armistice for 20 years.”
I had long known about the message Foch sent, but it wasn’t until I read a biography of him a few months ago that I learned the story behind it. As a newly promoted French general, Foch had been placed in command of one of the 9 sectors of the French front lines. The Germans launched a particularly vicious attack on his sector. Foch figured that the reason the Germans were making such a determined attack on his sector was to hide their weakness in other sectors. He was right. The Germans were getting pushed back in other areas and were trying to do an organized retreat.
Foch came up with a very risky plan that could easily have resulted in disaster. He used the center and right of his forces to keep the Germans occupied and kept the left side of his forces out of it. The Germans pushed the French forces back and gained a lot of ground. But while they were gaining ground, their forces were getting weaker and their supply lines were getting longer and more tenuous. Just about the time the Germans gained so much ground that they started to celebrate what they thought was a great victory, Foch threw the left side of his forces into it and attacked their exposed flank. The Germans had to give up all of the ground they had gained and then some.