Mighty Dead

The militant glory of France may be summed up, today, in a pyramid of six great names:

Foch

Petain Lyautey

Joffre Franchet d'Esperey Fayolle

These heroes of the War, and these alone, received the gold-starred baton of a Marshal of France.

Last fortnight the right-hand cornerstone of the pyramid of names, Fayolle, was knocked out by Death (TIME, Sept. 3).

Last week the dead Marshal, Marie Emile Fayolle, 76, was interred at Paris with greater pomp than has been accorded any Frenchman since the Unknown Soldier was laid beneath the Arc de Triomphe.

In the mourning procession paced the battle charger of Marshal Fayolle, with bridle down and empty boots reversed in stirrups. Ten officers followed, bearing on velvet cushions the Marshal's baton, sword and blazing decorations seemingly numberless.

Nobly borne upon a rumbling gun carriage came the coffin of Fayolle, he who succeeded Petain and held Verdun through the dire summer of 1917. Like most of the French Marshals, he was once a Professor at the Ecole de Guerre; and time has vindicated his numerous original doctrines de la concentration des feux et des moyens (theories of laying down a barrage).

Behind the coffin walked Prime Minister Raymond Poincare and Marshals

Foch, Petain, Lyautey, Franchet d'Esperey.

Where then was Joffre, the jovial, the well beloved? Good "Papa" Joffre announced through his onetime aide-decamp, Colonel Fadry, that, at the age of 76, he did not feel equal to a two-mile walk. The end of the walk was the Crypt of Honor at the famed Hotel des Invalides, near the great, domed, imperial tomb of THE CORSICAN.

In that place of transcendent glory, there seemed to stand, last week, merely four old men: Foch, 76; Lyautey, 73; Petain, 72; Franchet d'Esperey, 72.

Ferdinand Foch was early nicknamed the "man of geometrical mind," later the "man of will," lastly the "Man of Victory." As the first he was Chief of the Ecole de Guerre; as the second a General of brilliant, pitiless strategy; and at last he became the Generalissimo of half the World. Of all the Marshals of France Foch is the most keenly intellectual.

Joseph Jacques Cesaire Joffre is the "ThickHeaded Marshal," if his many savage critics are to be believed. They concede that his phlegmatic refusal to be defeated at the Marne (after appalling losses) saved Paris. But they blame him for the still more titanic losses suffered by the Allies in their failure to push through the great Offensive of the Somme. Placid "Papa" Joffre is even now dictating his vindication, his book--and promises to spare no critic.

Louis Hubert Gonzalve Lyautey is the "Moroccan Marshal." He was born in France but his spurs and his glory were won on the other side of the Mediterranean, in French Morocco, As High Commissioner and Resident General almost continuously from 1912 to 1925, he pacified a robber rabble, waged reforms as well as war, organized a stable government, and laid the sure foundations of a great colonial and commercial future.

When the time came to oust Joffre, in 1917, Lyautey was briefly recalled to Paris for the job. His great prestige enabled him, when appointed War Minister by Prime Minister Aristide Briand, to abolish the office of Commander-in-Chief and Adviser to the Cabinet then held by Joffre--on the announced ground that it trespassed upon his (Lyautey's) War Ministry! Within three months Lyautey was back in his beloved Morocco, laden with the gratitude of Paris politicians.

Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Joseph Petain was a mere colonel in 1914. His dashing valor and the fact that his men broke the German line briefly at Arras, in 1915, brought him prodigiously swift promotion. In 1916 he was chosen to hold Verdun against the German Crown Prince.

People who think of H. R. H. Wilhelm as a mere "Rat Face" should recall that he advanced upon Verdun with the minds of Germania's best generals and the might of her sturdiest shock troops.

On the eve of battle Petain's chauffeur lost his way and blundered into a snowdrift. Next day the French commander felt queer and his doctor said, "Pneumonia." Promptly the man of medicine was told to keep his mouth shut. History will record that General Petain was a sick man during the first five days of battle. France has forgiven his rash concealment of his illness, because, and solely because, the Crown Prince did not break through.

Louis Franchet d'Esperey might be called the "Marshal Nobody Knows--Outside of France."

Citizens of the U. S. ought to scratch their heads and remember that Franchet d'Esperey broke and shattered Bulgaria in 1918. He also captured the most brilliant German Feldmarschall, August von Mackensen, who, not long previously, had whipped Rumania to her knees.