New Game - Military Quotes

[ExSarge]

New game.

Military Quotes.

Rules:

1. Quotes must have a military connection.
2. Quote must be published and the source book must be in general circulation. So your favourite saying from your RSM is out, unless it meets the above guidelines!
3. Quote must not be in general usage. That means no “Damn the torpedoes full steam ahead” or any of Wellingtons or Churchill’s more famous and oft repeated quotes!
4. If called out you must be able to cite your source. That’s to keep those sneaky Air Force types from making up their own!

Objective:

Pure entertainment with perhaps a little knowledge thrown in!


Prize:

The winner will receive the bragging rights as the “Army.Ca user with way to much time on his/her hands.”


To start off I offer the following;


"The thanks of the infantry, in my opinion, must be treasured more by every artilleryman than all decorations and citations".
- Colonel Georg Bruchmuller
Imperial German Army Artillery Officer and Father of Modern Fire Support


“We were at their hearths and homes and they were fighting for all the good God gives any man the right to fight for”.
- Captain (Brevet Colonel) Fredrick Benteen
Custer Court of Inquiry, when asked his opinion for the loss of Custer’s command.

 

[Michael OLeary]

"For in the most progressive military thought, following in the footsteps of the Great Captains, conceives the real target in war to be the mind of the enemy command, not the bodies of troops. If we operate against his troops it is fundamentally for the effect that action will produce on the mind and will of the commander." - Capt B.H. Liddell-Hart

 

[tomahawk6]

"A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week."
Patton

 

[JBoyd]

"If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves." - Winston Churchill


More of a speech than a quote, although contains many great quotes:

"Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. You won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country. Men, all this stuff you've heard about America not wanting to fight, wanting to stay out of the war, is a lot of horse dung. Americans traditionally love to fight. All real Americans, love the sting of battle.

When you were kids, you all admired the champion marble shooter, the fastest runner, the big league ball players, the toughest boxers ... Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans play to win all the time.

I wouldn't give a hoot in Hell for a man who lost and laughed. That's why Americans have never lost and will never lose a war. Because the very thought of losing is hateful to Americans. Now, an army is a team. It lives, eats, sleeps, fights as a team. This individuality stuff is a bunch of crap.

The biggest bastards who wrote that stuff about individuality for the Saturday Evening Post, don't know anything more about real battle than they do about fornicating.  Now we have the finest food and equipment, the best spirit, and the best men in the world.

You know ... My God, I actually pity those poor bastards we're going up against. My God, I do. We're not just going to shoot the bastards, we're going to cut out their living guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks. We're going to murder those lousy Hun bastards by the bushel.

Now some of you boys, I know, are wondering whether or not you'll chicken out under fire. Don't worry about it. I can assure you that you'll all do your duty. The Nazis are the enemy.  Wade into them. Spill their blood, shoot them in the belly. When you put your hand into a bunch of goo, that a moment before was your best friends face, you'll know what to do. Now there's another thing I want you to remember. I don't want to get any messages saying that we are holding our position. We're not holding anything, we'll let the Hun do that. We are advancing constantly, and we're not interested in holding onto anything except the enemy. We're going to hold onto him by the nose, and we're going to kick him in the ass. We're going to kick the hell out of him all the time, and we're going to go through him like crap through a goose.

Now, there's one thing that you men will be able to say when you get back home, and you may thank God for it.  Thirty years from now when you're sitting around your fireside with your grandson on your knee, and he asks you, What did you do in the great World War Two? You won't have to say, Well, I shoveled shit in Louisiana. Alright now, you sons of bitches, you know how I feel. I will be proud to lead you wonderful guys into battle anytime, anywhere. That's all."

-General George S. Patton, Jr.
3rd Army Speech - England.
31 MAY 1944 - 6th Armored Division

 

[Hill_187]

Courage which goes against military expediency is stupidity, or, if it is insisted upon by a commander, irresponsibility.
-Rommel

 

[ExSarge]

"Artillery adds dignity, to what would otherwise be an ugly brawl"
- Frederick the Great, king of Germany, 1740 to 1786


"Be with me God, the night is long, the night is dark and my little spark of courage grows dim. Be with me God and give me strength."
- Author unknown. Found on a slip of paper in a slit trench after the Battle of El Alamein and published in "Songs from the Desert" - 1944

 

[4Feathers]

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing"
- Edmund Burke (1729-1797), British statesman and philosopher

 

[nickhd]

"Never forget that your weapon was made by the lowest bidder."
-Unknown

(From COD 4)

 

[ModlrMike]

"War is too serious a matter to entrust to military men."
George Clemenceau (1841-1929)

 

[MARS]

no "damn the torpedoes"???  Am I sensing an anti-navy bent here?

"Gentlemen, when the enemy is committed to a mistake we must not interrupt him too soon."

"No Captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of the enemy."

Vice Admiral of the White, The Right Honourable Horatio, Viscount Nelson, Knight of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath.

Not his most famous quotes, but two of his more humourous ones...

 

[mariomike]

"Bomber Harris bounded up on the platform and his very first words were, 'Most of you people won't be here in a few months. We are about to begin a series of raids that will demand the best from all of you. We know there will be tremendous losses, but it has to be done. You have all done a splendid job, but the real test is still before you. We must beat Germany to her knees.' The direct honest way Harris had answered brought a roar of approval from the crowd, and he went down in our books as a man you could trust."
Boys, bombs and Brussel sprouts,' 1981 by Doug Harvey, RCAF. pg 71-72.

Note:
RCAF 6 Group Stn Linton-on-Ouse, England. 408 Goose and 426 Thunderbird Squadrons . The 426 Squadron history confirms the date of the visit as 14 Sept 1943.

 

[KingKikapu]

"Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than about peace, more about killing than we know about living."

Gen. Omar Bradley.

 

[ExSarge]

no "damn the torpedoes"???  Am I sensing an anti-navy bent here?

Anti-Navy? No way not when you guys are getting those cute new uniforms! I really like the hats, they are so frilly! 

 

[Sythen]

"Out of every 100 men,
ten shouldn't even be there,
Eighty are just targets,
Nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle.
Ah, but the one,
One is a warrior,
And he will bring the others back."

Not sure where I found that one, but I have a word document where I keep all the quotes I find that I like..

And an excerpt from my favorite poem by John MccCrae, The Anxious Dead..

Tell them, O guns, that we have heard their call,
That we have sworn and will not turn aside,
That we will onward til we win or fall,
That we will keep the faith for which they died.

 

[Michael OLeary]

Not sure where I found that one, but I have a word document where I keep all the quotes I find that I like..

Only a Word doc?  How about a 4300 line Access database, searchable by keyword.    ;D

(Admittedly it been a few years since I diligently collected and added quotes from my reading.)

 

[Sythen]

Only a Word doc?  How about a 4300 line Access database, searchable by keyword.    ;D

(Admittedly it been a few years since I diligently collected and added quotes from my reading.)

lol I'm still young Must be something in the hayboxes they give us Royals make us obsess over quotes  :warstory:

 

[Michael OLeary]

Clearly the military historian needs to beware in reading the regimental reports where the reputations of officers as well as their men are involved. - Geoffrey Regan

 

[ExSarge]

"We're surrounded. That simplifies the problem."
- Attributed to Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller, USMC
(I have found three versions of this one)
The  quotes may not be Chesty Pullers,
but may instead have been said by General O.P.Smith

"They are a damn site better than the U.S. Army, at least we know that they
will be there in the morning."
- Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller
when a journalist asked him about being surrounded by 22. enemy divisions

"The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten."
- Calvin Coolidge, (1872-1933)

"It is not big armies that win battles, it is the good ones!"
  - Marshal Maurice de Saxe ("Mes Reveries")

 

[Feldgendarme]

"Give me German Officers, British NCO's and Canadian troops and I will win this war!"

Feldmarschal Rommel
source Die Wehrmacht Kreigbuch 43/44

 

[ExSarge]

". . . There is Nothing on Earth So Stupid as a Gallant Officer."
- "The Peer" Viscount Wellington, April 1811 on the failure of the commanding officer of the blockading forces to prevent the French from escaping from Almeida.