There were three Maréchaux de France created during WWI : Foch, Pétain and Joffre.
All of them were born in the 1850s, and while Joffre and Foch died during the interwar era, Pétain would live on, with the pathetic consequences we know about.
Now, what would happen if Foch survived to the 1940s in reasonably good mental health and died in 1951, while Pétain died in 1929 ?
Ferdinand Foch was a very agressive character, often refered to as a madman, and known for the sentence "Pressé fortement sur ma droite, mon centre cède, impossible de me mouvoir, situation excellente, j'attaque.". He would later become the Generalissimo of the Allied Forces, and oversee the Hundred Days Offensive which broke the German army, as well as decry Versailles as being an "Armistice for twenty years". Meanwhile, Philippe Pétain was the very popular defender of Verdun, and was known for his concern for the individual soldier.
All of them were born in the 1850s, and while Joffre and Foch died during the interwar era, Pétain would live on, with the pathetic consequences we know about.
Now, what would happen if Foch survived to the 1940s in reasonably good mental health and died in 1951, while Pétain died in 1929 ?
Ferdinand Foch was a very agressive character, often refered to as a madman, and known for the sentence "Pressé fortement sur ma droite, mon centre cède, impossible de me mouvoir, situation excellente, j'attaque.". He would later become the Generalissimo of the Allied Forces, and oversee the Hundred Days Offensive which broke the German army, as well as decry Versailles as being an "Armistice for twenty years". Meanwhile, Philippe Pétain was the very popular defender of Verdun, and was known for his concern for the individual soldier.