Quotes About Warfare

In the first three months of actual fighting from the last week in August to the end of November, when the German drive against the Channel ports had come to an end and the first great invasion was definitely arrested, the French lost in killed, prisoners and wounded 854,0001 men. In

I do not understand the squeamishness about the use of gas. I am strongly in favour of using poison gas against uncivilized tribes. It would spread a lively terror.

3760we will fight them on the beaches

Lo que hemos ganado por las armas en medio año —dijo Moltke— debemos protegerlo con las armas por medio siglo, si queremos que no nos lo vuelvan a arrebatar».

The more morally impossible a military operation, the better chance it will have of success if it is physically practicable. Surprise—that sovereign talisman of War—springs from the doing of the exact thing the enemy is certain will never be tried.

the Battle of Alamein, called Desert Victory.

he would in any case have saved the British Army in France from the futile slaughter of May, and possibly even discouraged the French from the long and frightful follies of their Spring offensive in Artois in which they squandered nearly a quarter of a million men.

No prize was to reward the sacrifices of the combatants. Victory was to be bought so dear as to be almost indistinguishable from defeat.

The sufferings and impoverishment of peoples might arrest their warfare, the collapse of the defeated might still the cannonade, but their hatreds continue unappeased and their quarrels are still unsettled.

No war is so sanguinary as the war of exhaustion.

Gunpowder, which we have seen used in the puny bombards which, according to some authorities, Edward had fired at Crécy and against Calais, was soon decisively to establish itself as a practical factor in war and in human affairs based on war. If cannon had not been invented the English mastery of the long-bow might have carried them even farther in their Continental domination.

Battles are won by slaughter and manœuvre. The greater the general, the more he contributes in manœuvre, the less he demands in slaughter.

Nearly all the battles which are regarded as masterpieces of the military art, from which have been derived the foundation of states and the fame of commanders, have been battles of manœuvre in which very often the enemy has found himself defeated by some novel expedient or device, some queer, swift, unexpected thrust or stratagem. In many such battles the losses of the victors have been small.

if only the Generals had not been content to fight machine-gun bullets with the breasts of gallant men, and think that that was waging war.

How hard to build. How easy to evacuate. How hard to capture. How easy to do nothing. How hard to achieve anything. War is action, energy & hazard. These sheep only want to browse among the daisies.

La sorpresa, la rapidez y la intensidad del ataque están supeditadas al estado de preparación del enemigo en un momento dado. Todo movimiento emprendido por un bando puede ser anulado por un movimiento contrario del adversario. En una operación de esta clase, fuerza y tiempo vienen a ser magnitudes de valor equivalente y que pueden en gran medida expresarse en las mismas unidades: una semana perdida viene a equivaler a una división

Two things stop the offensive movements of armies: (a) Bullets and fragments of shell which destroy the motive power of men, and (b) The confusion of the conflict.

We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.

Los cuadros de bajas expuestos en el capítulo titulado «Estadística sangrienta» muestran la falsedad de esta impresión. Sir Douglas Haig no fue bien servido en esta ocasión por su Servicio de Información del Gran Cuartel General196 la tendencia a decirle a un jefe de elevada situación solo las cosas que gusta de oír es una de las explicaciones más corrientes de una dirección

We are now somewhat readily accepting the proposition that high-explosive shells used in unprecedented and extraordinary quantities will achieve decisive results.

In practice, as even the Russians have now learned, the only way of pillaging a defeated nation is to cart away any movables which are wanted, and to drive off a portion of its manhood as permanent or temporary slaves.

En el Pacífico, había solo cinco estaciones inalámbricas alemanas: Yap, Apia, Nauru, Rabaul y Anguar; estas estaciones fueron destruidas antes de dos meses, a contar desde el principio de la contienda. Después de esto, solo quedaron las estaciones de T. S. H. de a bordo, con las que era muy peligroso lanzar una sola palabra en el espacio.

The fighting man shall from the sun Take warmth, and life from the growing earth; Speed with the light-foot wind to run, And with the trees to newer birth, And find when fighting shall be done, Great rest and fullness after dearth. The thundering line of battle stands, And in the air Death moans and sings; But day shall clasp him with strong hands, And night shall fold him in soft wings.' JULIAN GRENFELL. Flanders, April, 1915.

la artillería conquista y la infantería ocupa»