Word: taine
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...rumored that Maréchal Pétain, copying the strategy employed by Foch in his final drive against the Germans in 1918, had been concentrating his forces first at one point and then at another, and was now about to consolidate the points of vantage in a final drive upon the heights of Bribane, which would sweep on until Abd-el-Krim surrendered...
...events transpired it became evident that Maréchal Pétain did indeed mean business by his drive upon Bribane. Tanks advanced, smashing through frail adobe huts like mastodons treading upon eggshells. French 75's spotted the heights, and sent fragments of the rocky butte, deadly as shrapnel, splintering among the Moorish tribesmen. The whole mountain, which is topped by the stronghold village of Bribane, was enveloped by the smoke of burning crops and villages and the fumes of exploding shells. Armored cars and cavalry advanced up the easier slopes, while battalion after battalion of infantry stormed the steep western salient...
Results were two: 1) From El Brisbane, Maréchal Pétain commands stragetically a large territory, but any great advance, in view of the desperate resistance of the Riffians, will be extremely difficult, because the rainy season will very shortly open and transform the salient into a quagmire over which French war paraphernalia cannot be dragged; 2) politically the victory is of some importance because it has led to the surrender of the Beni Urriaguet tribe, whose territory the French now dominate...
...regarded as certain that Maréchal Pétain will strengthen his present formidable line into, an impregnable winter position rather than attempt to gain an immediate victory. In Paris talk of Foch and 1918 has subsided...
...this news came the report that Marshal Pétain (whom a U. S. correspondent called "France's military pinch-hitter") would make an early return to France, leaving General Naulin in supreme command of military operations in Morocco. It appeared that the Marshal had been sent to France to make an expert survey for the Government. Prince Aago of Denmark, nephew of Queen Mother Alexandra of Britain, was wounded in the hand while fighting the Riffians in the French Foreign Legion...