This largely bleak composition, one of many posters issued by the French banks to encourage civilians to subscribe to the fourth and final French war loan, shows heavily laden “poilus” (infantrymen) advancing through the mud and water-filled shell holes of No Man’s Land on the Western Front. On the right, Marshal Ferdinand Foch surveys the scene while his staff officers examine a map. In 1918, Foch became Allied Supreme Commander, in charge not only of French forces but also of British, American, and Italian troops. He is often given credit for the final defeat of the German Army on the Western Front in the fall of 1918. The word “Sem” that appears in the image was the artist’s name of Georges Goursat; he published two volumes of Croquis de Guerre (War Sketches) in 1916 and 1918 and designed several other war bond posters. His depiction of the posturing figure of Foch here suggests the influence of the artist’s successful career as a caricaturist during the Belle Époque.