is an Armistice for twenty years." Early life Ferdinand Foch was born in Tarbes, a municipality in the department of Hautes-Pyrénées, in southwestern France, into a devout Catholic family. His last name reflects the ancestry of his father, a civil servant from Valentine, a village in Haute-Garonne, whose lineage may trace back to 16th-century Alsace. He attended school in Tarbes, Rodez, Polignan and at the Jesuit in Saint-Étienne before attending the Jesuit in Metz. His brother, Germain Foch, became a Jesuit priest, which may have hindered Foch's rise in the French Army since the Republican government of France was anti-clerical. When the Franco-Prussian War broke out in 1870, the 17-year-old Foch enlisted in the French 4th Infantry Regiment in 1868, which did not take part in combat. He remained in the army after the war. In 1871, he entered the École Polytechnique, choosing the school of artillery. In 1873, he received his commission as an artillery officer and served as a lieutenant in the 24th Artillery Regiment in Tarbes, despite not having completed his course, because there was a shortage of junior officers. In 1876, he attended the cavalry school of Saumur to train as a mounted artillery officer. On 30 September 1878, he became a captain and arrived in Paris on 24 September 1879 as an assistant in the Central Personnel Service Depot of the artillery. In 1885 Foch undertook a course at the École Supérieure de Guerre where he was later an instructor from 1895 to 1901. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel in 1898, and colonel in 1903. As a colonel he became regimental commander of the 35th Artillery Regiment (35e R.A) at Vannes. An extremely short man, Foch was known for his physical strength and his sharp mind who always maintained a highly dignified bearing. Foch was a quiet man, known for saying little and when he did speak, it was a volley of words accompanied by much gesturing of his hands that required some knowledge of him to understand properly. One of Foch's favourite phrases was "Pas de protocole!" as he preferred to be approachable by all officers. Foch's only rigidity was always taking his meals at noon and at 7:30; otherwise, he would work all sorts of irregular hours from dawn until well into the night. In 1907 Foch was promoted to Général de Brigade, and in the same year, he assumed command of the French