Quotes About Commanders

After the bloodbath of the First World War, army commanders from western democracies were under great pressure at home to reduce their own casualties, so they relied on a massive use of artillery shells and bombs. As a result far more civilians died. White phosphorus especially was a weapon of terrible indiscrimination.

The brigade fought to the end with great courage, winning the admiration of the Germans. But the continuing failure of British commanders to counter-attack in force from the west was one of the least impressive examples of generalship in the war.

Not surprisingly, American officers regarded their British counter parts as 'too polite' and lacking a necessary ruthlessness, especially when it came to sacking incompetent commanders. Churchill

Lincoln discovered Generals Grant and Sherman. Roosevelt had Eisenhower and Bradley. I found David Petraeus and Ray Odierno.

Tom was General of one of these armies, Joe Harper (a bosom friend) General of the other. These two great commanders did not condescend to fight in person—that being better suited to the still smaller fry—but sat together on an eminence and conducted the field operations by orders delivered through aides-de-camp.

Povinností velitel? je ob?tovat N?mecku své pochybnosti.

After the war, Fitz Lee served as governor of Virginia and became one of several former Confederate commanders to return to duty in the U.S. Army for the Spanish-American War.

In the end, only Washington's majestic presence kept the army together. He was also lucky in his British counterparts: mediocrities to a man. (One British observer noted, "Any general in the world other than General Howe would have beaten General Washington; and any general in the world other than General Washington would have beaten General Howe.")

After World War I, while France and other Allies were building military defenses modeled on trench warfare, German commanders were shaping a nimble fighting force.

If the regulars are to be put together, I believe they would prefer me to the other Cavalry Commanders.

Business is war! Its leaders are strategic commanders, who boldly snatch victory from the jaws of defeat - and who perform other acts of derring-do. This kind of talk sounds great in the boardroom, and, for that matter, in the bookstore, where dozens of authors counsel would-be corporate warriors.

a crucial element of English success was their commanders' ability to learn on the fly, make adjustments, and attempt new tactics. The Spanish paid a heavy price for their lack of equal flexibility.

If you look at the question of expenditure in Iraq, you have got to start from the one fundamental truth: that every request that the military commanders made to us for equipment was answered. No request was ever turned down.

Commanders are not always leaders. Commanders are appointed. Leaders are unofficially "elected" by the troops in the unit. Likewise in other fields of endeavor. Every leader is put through an informal process in the first few weeks wherein his people judge him and decide whether or not he is worthy of their trust. He must earn that trust. How? A leader must prove himself by his actions, appearance, demeanor, attitude, and decisions.

As a result of the expectations created, every time a training fatality occurs, the public pressure on MINDEF and SAF commanders down the leadership chain takes on a very corrosive edge. This damages not just the SAF, but the institution of National Service too.

For me, being able to engage with the details when necessary, when there's a challenge, when there's a particularly important pivot, yes, you have to do that. But in general, a leader needs to trust their commanders, needs to trust the team they've assembled, to actually execute in the right way.

But Achish, Lord of Gath, had no intention of allowing such an Israelite celebration. He had no intention of submitting to the rules of war. He immediately turned to the commanders near him and barked, "Quickly, lead your forces and flee back to Gath before the Israelites can catch us!

But, in fact, his reserve might, in some degree, have proceeded from design. If so, then here was evinced the unhealthy climax of that icy though conscientious policy, more or less adopted by all commanders of large ships, which, except in signal emergencies, obliterates alike the manifestation of sway with every trace of sociality; transforming the man into a block, or rather into a loaded cannon, which, until there is call for thunder, has nothing to say. Viewing

Old age is always wakeful; as if, the longer linked with life, the less man has to do with aught that looks like death. Among sea-commanders, the old greybeards will oftenest leave their berths to visit the night-cloaked deck.

In four months, Nagumo's carriers had traveled more than 50,000 miles, spreading terror and devastation a full third of the way around the earth, from Hawaii in the east to Ceylon in the west. But the mileage was beginning to wear. The ships and crews had been sent on too many missions in too many directions; they had traveled too many miles with too little rest; they had been pushed to the limits of endurance by commanders who were loath to accept that such limits even existed.

But he did not lack the ruthlessness required of all military commanders in wartime.

The Hungarian ministry begged the king earnestly to issue orders to all troops and commanders of fortresses in Hungary, enjoining fidelity to the Constitution, and obedience to the ministers of Hungary.

Military commanders do not want to be tried for war crimes, even if those crimes are committed online.

Mistakes are always paid for in casualties and troops are quick to see any blunder made by their commanders. —DWIGHT DAVID EISENHOWER