As the Churchill quotes thread rumbles on, surely there's a place for 'militaristic' quoting by other than the great man. Few of my favourites: "The essence of war is violence. Moderation in war is imbecility. Hit first, hit hard, and hit anywhere." ~Admiral John 'Jacky' Fisher. "By God, sir, I've lost my leg." "By God, sir, so you have!" ~Uxbridge & Wellington (whether anecdotal or not, I always hope it's true.) "The Pope? How many divisions has he got?" ~Stalin "I had rather have a plain Russet coated captain that knows what he fights for and loves what he knows, than that which you call a gentleman, and is nothing else." ~Cromwell "This war without an enemy" Waller to Hopton "You can fight a battle every day of your life, but you might not see a caterpillar like that in fifteen years!" ~Brigadier 'Loony' Hinde
"C’est magnifique, mais ce n’est pas la guerre" (It's magnificent but it's not war) ~Marshal Pierre Bosquet on the Charge of the Light Brigade “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.” ~George S Patton " The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it. " ~ George Orwell
"We're not retreating, Hell! We're just attacking in a different direction!" GEN. OLIVER SMITH, USMC “Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.” General George S. Patton quotes “He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice.” Albert Einstein quotes
'Beat your swords into ploughshares, you will soon be ploughing the other man's fields for him - We, the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have now done so much for so long with so little, we are now capable of doing anything with nothing." Try to look unimportant; they may be low on ammo and remember incoming fire has the right of way.
"What! What! Men dodging this way from a single bullet! I am ashamed of you. They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance..." Union MAJ GEN John Sedwick at Spotsylvania as he tried to motovate soldiers of an artillery battery who were pinned down by Confederate sniper fire. He was shot in the head and killed as he was speaking!
"Der Kampf gegen die eigenen Oberen macht manchmal mehr Arbeit als gegen die Franzosen". (It is sometimes tougher to fight my superiors than the French) - Heinz Guderian "Sweat saves blood". Erwin Rommel
When asked who the biggest generals in history were Rommel replied: Alexander the Great, Gustavus Adolphus, Napoleon Bonaparte and I
"In the cold afterlight, the historian and military critic has his licence to juggle the arithmetic equations of battle." - Major General RE Urquhart Keith
Special Orders to No.1 Section 13/3/18(1) This position will be held, and the section will remain here until relieved. (2) The enemy cannot be allowed to interfere with this programme. (3) If the section cannot remain here alive, it will remain here dead, but in any case it will remain here. (4) Should any man, through shell shock or other cause, attempt to surrender, he will remain here dead. (5) Should all guns be blown out, the section will use Mills grenades and other novelties. (6) Finally, the position as stated, will be held. F.P. Bethune Lt O/C No.1 Section The Diggers relations with each other | Australian War Memorial
"After having an easy war, things have now got much more difficult." (a colleague is reported to tell him to cheer up after overhearing the above remark to which he replied,) "I'm not talking about me, I'm talking about Rommel!" Lt. Gen. B. L. Montgomery,
Following on from VP's post #11 it is only right to add the final paragraph of Douglas Haig's special order of the day of 11 April 1918.. ...There is no other course open to us but to fight it out. Every position must be held to the last man: there must be no retirement. With our backs to the wall and believing in the justice of our cause each one of us must fight on to the end. The safety of our homes and the Freedom of mankind alike depend upon the conduct of each one of us at this critical moment.
You'll be home before the leaves have fallen from the trees. Kaiser Wilhelm II to troops leaving for the front. August 1914. My Friend, we shall not have time to make them. I shall tear up the Boches within two months. General Joseph Joffre, November 1914, rejecting the notion that his troops needed steel helmets. French troops, however, were to pay a high price for this. No danger at all. We've hired him for our act. Franz von Papen, vice-chancellor of the Weimar Republic, on the choice of Hitler as chancellor, 30 January 1933. Oh, you can't do that, that's private property: you'll be asking me to bomb the Ruhr next! Sir Kingsley Wood, Minister for Air, to Leo Amery who had suggested setting the Black Forrest on fire with incendiary bombs, 5 September 1939. In defeat unbeatable; in victory unbearable. Winston Churchill on Montgomery. My people and I, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, firmly remember your wise prediction: Hitler will not attack in 1941! Lickspittal Lavrenti Beria to Stalin on 21 June 1941. It is significant that despite the claims of air enthusiasts no battleship has yet to be sunk by bombs. Caption under a photograph of USS Arizona. It was sunk by Japanese bombs at Pearl Harbor eight days later.
Even if a submarine should work by a miracle, it will never be used. No country in this world would ever use such a vicious and petty form of warfare!" - William Henderson, British admiral(1914) Why does the Air Force need expensive new bombers? Have the people we've been bombing over the years been complaining?" — George Wallace Army food: the spoils of war — Unknown
I know it goes on a bit but this sums up everything about the British Divisions in 1940, and I would like to think later and until today. I've re-read the Highland Division by Eric Linklater and was, once again, struck and moved by the closing statement with regard to the HD (and its attached units). Although I would believe that it would have held true for any British Division at the time, both Regular and TA. "But it is, on the whole, against a background of rout and sickness of despair that the performance of the 51st must be assessed, and the fact that signally emerges is that throughout its rearguard action and retreat the Division retained coherence. It remained a Division, and discipline ruled until the end. It had shown, both on the Saar and on the Somme, a finely aggressive spirit and great stubbornness in defence. It had discovered a remarkable unwillingness – incapacity is a better word – to admit defeat, though the odds were always heavy. Striking westward towards St. Valery had been 4th German Corps of two divisions forward, two in reserve; and in the left hook over the Durdent were a Panzer division and a motorised division behind. But against this impressive strength the Highland Officers, Non-commissioned officers and Private soldiers – and the many Englishmen who enlarged the Division – had revealed, again and again, their sense of responsibility and their gift of initiative. They were compelled to show an almost superhuman endurance. These are soldierly qualities, and they provide the substance for many heartening paragraphs in a history of misfortune. But what conclusively proves that the Division was a good Division, in spite of misfortune, is its continuing discipline. There is no sterner test of discipline than a long rearguard action, unless it be the sight of supporting troops who have been broken in the fight. The 51st survived those tests, and the Division remained a Division till the end. It had no luck – the dice were loaded outrageously against it – and so it failed to maintain the legend that its predecessor had made in the first German war, for a legend needs a little luck to help it grow. But the 51st had the other virtues of the old Division, and proof of this – that would prove the virtues of any division – that in spite of all its weariness and frustration of all its hopes, the failure on its flanks, and its grievous losses, its spirit was unbroken. It suffered many casualties, but not the fatal one. ITS HARD CORE WAS FIGHTING TO THE END, AND DISCIPLINE WAS THE LAST IN THE FIELD". Perhaps the last line is the quote I've been looking for.
