Hey everyone,
I need some help finding great quotes from different WW2 commanders. I have room on each national card in my upcoming custom card deck accessory, and I’ve decided to use that space for inspirational quotes… the problem is that I can’t find many good ones. I have a few already that should give you an idea of what I’m looking for…
On the Germany card:
“Don’t fight a battle if you gain nothing by winning”
On the Russia card:
“If we come to a minefield, our infantry must attack exactly as if it were not there”
On the United Kingdom card:
“If we lose the war in the air, we lose the war altogether… and we lose it quickly”
On the United States card:
“A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week”
Request Summary
…There is a common thread I’m trying to follow here… I want quotes that were meant to offer strategic insight, or increase moral amongst their forces… and I’m looking for quotes from officers and commanders that saw battle, rather than from supreme commanders that just make speeches.
I don’t need anything for the China card, and if there are suggestions for better quotes I already have on national cards, I’m open to those as well.
Thank you, I appreciate any help I can get in this project.
Cheers,
YG.
Some quotes attributed to Isoroku Yamamoto:
“The fiercest serpent may be overcome by a swarm of ants.”
The fate of the Empire rests on this enterprise. Every man must devote himself totally to the task at hand."
Some quotes for the ANZACs:
“At present, the prime necessity is to ensure the defence of Australia itself. But it would be wrong to assume that throughout the duration of the war, our duty would continue to be as circumscribed as that.” - Prime Minister Robert Menzies, September 1939
“This is the gravest hour of our history. We have a heavy responsibility. I ask every Australian, man and woman, to go about their allotted tasks with full vigour and courage.” - Prime Minister John Curtin, December 1941
Force intact. Still fighting. Badly need boots, money, quinine, tommy gun, ammunition. - Message transmitted from Portuguese Timor to Darwin, April 1942
Some quotes for the Italians:
“The German soldier has astonished the world; the Italian Bersagliere has astonished the German soldier.” - Erwin Rommel, epitaph to the Italian soldier
Until face to face with the enemy, who inexorably advanced well protected toward sure prey, they cried with the last spark of life, “Long Live Italy!” - Gen. Rodolfo Graziani
The Graziani quote is probably too dark. You may have to go hunting in a university library for better quotes on the Italians. I suggest a small book, Hitler’s Italian Allies. Much of the material you are likely to find, if not from Mussolini, will come from Ciano, who was something of a dry wit as a diarist and therefore isn’t likely to give you anything very stirring.
This is going to be a fun request to work on, which I’ll do in more detail later today, but for starters here are a couple that immediately come to mind.
“My men can eat their belts, but my tanks need gas!”
“He either fears his fate too much, or his deserts are small, that dares not put it to the touch to win or lose it all.”
“You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months.”
“In the Red Army, it takes a very brave man to be a coward.”
“The first twenty-four hours of the invasion will be decisive. For the Allies, as well as Germany, it will be the longest day.”
“In the first six to twelve months of a war with the United States and Great Britain I will run wild and win victory upon victory.”
Just as a side note, by the way: General George S. Patton and Admiral William F. Halsey (who very quite similar in temperament and vocabulary) were known for their morale-raising one-liners, but unfortunately these tended to be unprintable. One of the more famous Halsey ones contains terminology that the forum’s software would automatically censor.
" Before we’re through with them, Japanese language will be spoken only in hell."
Admiral Halsey
" In case opportunity for destruction of a major portion of the enemy fleet is offered, or can be created, such destruction becomes the primary task."
Admiral Nimitz
Some quotes attributed to Isoroku Yamamoto:
The fate of the Empire rests on this enterprise. Every man must devote himself totally to the task at hand."
This one is the front runner for a Yamamoto quote…
Some quotes for the ANZACs:
I believe the ANZAC quote search will be the most difficult…
Some quotes for the Italians:
Until face to face with the enemy, who inexorably advanced well protected toward sure prey, they cried with the last spark of life, “Long Live Italy!” - Gen. Rodolfo Graziani
This seems to be the best quote (not from Mussolini) so far for the Italians…
@CWO:
“My men can eat their belts, but my tanks need gas!”
- George S. Patton
“He either fears his fate too much, or his deserts are small, that dares not put it to the touch to win or lose it all.”
- Bernard L. Montgomery, quoting James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose
Good suggestions, really like that Patton quote although a little demoralizing to count in the cheerleader category… I like the ones I have so far in regards to UK and USA.
@Young:
Some quotes attributed to Isoroku Yamamoto:
The fate of the Empire rests on this enterprise. Every man must devote himself totally to the task at hand."
This one is the front runner for a Yamamoto quote…
Regretably, it’s not a Yamamoto quote. It’s the Z-flag signal which Admiral Togo hoisted at the Battle of Tsushima in 1905 (at which Yamamoto was present as a junior officer). The signal was duplicated by Admiral Nagumo just before he launched his air strike at Pearl Harbor.
@CWO:
“In the Red Army, it takes a very brave man to be a coward.”
- Georgi Zhukov
This one has definitely replaced my earlier Zhukov quote…
@CWO:
@Young:
Some quotes attributed to Isoroku Yamamoto:
The fate of the Empire rests on this enterprise. Every man must devote himself totally to the task at hand."
This one is the front runner for a Yamamoto quote…
Regretably, it’s not a Yamamoto quote.�  It’s the Z-flag signal which Admiral Togo hoisted at the Battle of Tsushima in 1905 (at which Yamamoto was present as a junior officer).�  The signal was duplicated by Admiral Nagumo just before he launched his air strike at Pearl Harbor.
Did Yamamoto really say that he was looking forward to dictating peace with America at the White House in Washington… or was that just US propaganda?
@Young:
Did Yamamoto really say that he was looking forward to dictating peace with America at the White House in Washington… or was that just US propaganda?
Actually, it’s neither. Yamamoto once wrote a letter in which he argued that defeating the US was not going to be easy; in it, he said that if Japan was going to go to war against the US it had better be prepared to fight a war that could only be won if Japan got all the way to Washington and dictated peace terms in the White House. Yamamoto’s enemies in the Japanese Army quoted his letter out of context to give the impression that Yamamoto was planning to dictate peace terms in the White House. The Americans grabbed onto the Army’s version of the text and used it in their propaganda, apparently unaware that Yamamoto was being misquoted by his own fellow Japanese officers.
" Until face to face with the enemy, who inexorably advanced well protected toward sure prey, they cried with the last spark of life, ‘Long Live Italy!’ "
OK, thanks… The Yamamoto quote provided by Trenacker seems to be the best, and that Italian quote seems to be the best Non-Mussolini quote. Anything, good from ANZAC… all the really good ones seem to be from WW1.
“We’re not here to take it, we’re here to give it.”
“This time the Kraut’s stuck his head in the meat grinder, and I’ve got hold of the handle.”
@CWO:
“We’re not here to take it, we’re here to give it.”
- Lieutenant General Sir Leslie James Morshead, commander of the 9th Australian Division at Tobruk, after hearing of a British propaganda article entitled “Tobruk can take it!”
That’s the one… but DAM, the name is longer than the quote itself  :lol:
…Although a few rude boys drinking beers around the game table might taught the ANZAC player
“Ohhh, you like to give it do ya?”
@CWO:
“This time the �����’s stuck his head in the meat grinder, and I’ve got hold of the handle.”
- George S. Patton, during the Battle of the Bulge
That’s good… but I still like the first one from Patton for what I’m trying to achieve.
“A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week” - George S. Patton
It’s got a great fortune cookie vibe to it :lol:
I gave Morshead’s full name and title because he’s not as famous as officers like Patton and Montgomery. An even more extreme quote-to-name ratio can be found in Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe’s one-worder “Nuts!” (There was a somewhat fictionalized version of this historical event in a movie in which McAuliffe delivers his famous statement verbally to some German envoys, who look at each other in puzzlement, then turn back to McAuliffe; one of them says, “What is this ‘Nuts’? I do not understand.” McAuliffe retorts, “Do you understand ‘Go to hell’, son?” The German nods and answers, “Ja, that I understand.”)
@CWO:
I gave Morshead’s full name and title because he’s not as famous as officers like Patton and Montgomery.�  An even more extreme quote-to-name ratio can be found in Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe’s one-worder "Nuts!"�  (There was a somewhat fictionalized version of this historical event in a movie in which McAuliffe delivers his famous statement verbally to some German envoys, who look at each other in puzzlement, then turn back to McAuliffe; one of them says, "What is this ‘Nuts’?�  I do not understand."�  McAuliffe retorts, “Do you understand ‘Go to hell’, son?” The German nods and answers, “Ja, that I understand.”)
How is Lieutenant General abbreviated, and was he Sir during the war… or was he knighted afterwards?
The best ANZAC quotes are from WW1…
“I can’t surrender, I’m in command of Australians… and they would cut my throat if I dared”
@Young:
How is Lieutenant General abbreviated, and was he Sir during the war… or was he knighted afterwards?
You may not need to include everything; it depends on what consistent practice you’ll be using for the other people you’re quoting. Bernard L. Montgomery, for example, was known in full as Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein – and that’s even leaving out his KG, GCB, DSO and PC designations. A good standard form to use for everyone would be simply rank + commonly used form of name (including initials as just initials), without any knighthoods.
