10 - Intermezzo 1917

Summary

Although Foch felt disgraced by his removal from command of the Northern Army Group, the new French commander-in-chief, General Robert Nivelle, put him to work immediately on various so-called ‘special studies’. The first five months of 1917 have been portrayed as a period of ‘make-work’ for Foch, yet the three studies that he completed then were each of considerable potential importance. The stalemate of 1916 on the Western Front following the lack of German success at Verdun and the lack of Allied success on the Somme gave greater emphasis to sectors further to the southeast, namely Switzerland, the Alsace-Lorraine front where Foch had begun his wartime career, and Italy. The French feared that the Germans might transfer their attention to any of these three sectors, a fear greatly increased in March 1917 when the first Russian revolution made the Eastern Front less secure. Also in March the Germans on the Western Front completed their withdrawal (begun on 4 February) to the newly constructed and immensely strong defensive position, the Hindenburgstellung, thereby interfering with the French offensive that Nivelle was planning for the Aisne front.