Second Marne - Directive No. 4

In the prelude to the prelude of the Second Battle of the Marne in 1918, we set the clock back to December 1917 to look at the position of the Allies at that point in the war. Specifically, we look at French Army commander General Philippe Petain's Directive No. 4 issued that month. In this short memo Petain advocated for a defense in depth strategy on the front lines, as Entente forces began to prepare for the inevitable German onslaught on the Western Front. The BFWWP is on Patreon: Any questions, comments or concerns please contact me through the website,

You can listen to Second Marne - Directive No. 4 online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Second Marne - Directive No. 4 is an episode from Battles of the First World War Podcast by Mike Cunha.

This episode is 30:03 long.

This episode was published on Dec 1, 2025.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Battles of the First World War Podcast when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.