Quotes About Conflict

With five emperors, eight kings, and four imperial dynasties rendered obsolete by the conflict, there was never a better time to emphasize that the newly minted House of Windsor—George V changed the family name from Saxe-Coburg und Gotha in 1917 to deflect anti-German sentiment—remained the unchanging keystone in the edifice of an empire upon which the sun never set. The

The Second World War lasted for 2,174 days, cost $1.5 trillion and claimed the lives of over 50 million people. That represents 23,000 lives lost every day, or more than six people killed every minute, for six long years.

On THE DECSIVE DUEL: SPITFIRE VS 109 The epic struggle between the Spitfire and the Messerschmitt 109 upon which so much of western civilization depended in the summer of 1940 has found the ideal biographer in David Isby. I write "biographer" because, like the men who flew these remarkable fighter planes, Isby sees them in almost human terms, transcending the mere mechanical. (Andrew Roberts, Author Of The Storm Of War )

Between 1793 and 1797, the French would lose 125 warships to Britain's 38, including 35 capital vessels (ships-of-the-line) to Britain's 11, most of the latter the result of fire, accidents and storms rather than French attack.15 The maritime aspect of grand strategy was always one of Napoleon's weaknesses: in all his long list of victories, none was at sea.

In war, men are nothing, but one man is everything

I decline utterly to be impartial as between the fire brigade and the fire,' proclaimed Churchill defending the partisanship of the British Gazette in a Commons debate on the Strike on 7 July. 'When you are in a great difficulty and in a fight of this kind, however unfortunate it may be, it is absolutely no use people pretending they do not know what side they are on.

As one Finn put it after the battle of Kuhmo, 'There were more Russians than we had bullets.

most of the French retreated into pursuit of their immediate material interests, hating the Occupation of course, but doing next to nothing to hasten its end. This was precisely what the Germans needed.

recalled the rancorous, partisan tempers and epithets

Pacificism was rife at the time Ã¢â'¬â€œ 11.6 million Britons signed the League of Nations' 'Peace Ballot' in 1934–5 Ã¢â'¬â€œ and it was far easier psychologically for people to portray Churchill as a warmonger

There is a fascinating dichotomy in that, although the appeasement movement was intended to prevent another war breaking out, most of its leaders had not seen action in the Great War, whereas most of the anti-appeasers had.

Paul Nash's 1941 painting The Battle of Britain

His men knew they could trust him not to be officious over such an unfortunate (though by no means isolated) friendly-fire incident, and to tell the dead Guardsman's family that he had died heroically. Sometimes in war, as he was to say later, the truth has to be defended by a bodyguard of lies.

The Daily Express declares that Britain will not be involved in a European war this year, or next year either'.

That's war: very high in the morning and very low in the evening: from triumph to failure is only one step.

For every American who died, the Japanese lost 6 people, the Germans 11, and the Russians 92.

Hatred plays the same part in Government as acids in chemistry

There are two people who sink U-boats in this war, Talbot,' he said. 'You sink them in the Atlantic and I sink them in the House of Commons. The trouble is that you are sinking them at exactly half the rate I am.

Battles are won by slaughter and manoeuvre,' he wrote in The World Crisis. 'The greater the general, the more he contributes in manoeuvre, the less he demands in slaughter.

set up to study the tactics and equipment required to defeat Japan, even recommended the use of mustard and phosgene gas against underground enemy positions, and was supported in this by Army Chief of Staff George Marshall and Supreme Commander General Douglas MacArthur, but it was vetoed by President Roosevelt.

In the calendar year 1943, when 70,000 Western servicemen, including bomber crews, died fighting Germany, two million Russian soldiers were killed, nearly thirty times the number.

Ultimately over half a million Germans died from aerial bombardment during the war, to Britain's 58,000.

By 5 January, a thousand Russian prisoners had been taken, a further 700 soldiers had escaped back to the Russian lines, and over 27,000 had been killed, all for the loss of 900 Finns.

total, around 43,000 officers were killed or imprisoned, although 20,000 were later released.