Word: castelnau
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Ferdinand Foch, like his soldier colleagues Marshal Joffre and General Castelnau, is from the Midi (South--not to be confused with the feminine midinette). It was at Tarbes in Gascony, under the shade of the Pyrenees, at 10 o'clock on the night of Oct. 2, 1851, that the future generalissimo of the Entente Armies was born. It was two months before Prince Louis Napoleon made his famed coup d'etat...
...before he had left the College de Saint-Clement at Metz, the Franco-Prussian War broke out and, like young Joffre and Castelnau, he served France's lost cause. The next year, he went back to Metz and, in July, passed the entrance examinations for the Polytechnique at Nancy, which town was still occupied by the Germans. At the Polytechnique he was a classmate of Joffre, a few months his junior. It is not certain if they were close friends...
Noel Marie Joseph Edouard, Marquis de Curieres de Castelnau, was born on Christmas Eve, 1851, the year of Louis Napoleon's coup d'etat. He was taught to be a good Catholic by the Jesuits and in the 18th year of his life entered the military academy...
...religious beliefs, the then Colonel Castelnau was, as always, a devout Catholic, while in politics he was a sincere Royalist; but his Royalism was of a brand that placed France above everything, as his long career under the Third Republic has proved. His Catholicism and his Royalism made him many enemies and he is known throughout France as le capucin botte (the booted Capuchin...
...capacity became the "heros de Nancy". Not only that, but by his brilliant offensive against Crown Prince Rupprecht's Army (the same Prince who is now virtually King of Bavaria) he undoubtedly (in the opinion of eminent military critics) made possible the famed Marne victory. Later General de Castelnau reorganized the defense of Verdun at a time when the Germans had almost smashed it. In the space of a few days, he inspired the dispirited troops and handed over the defense to the then General Petain in a state which defied the Germans for two years...