Nigel Hamilton Quotes

General Montgomery is the most irritating man I ever met. I have an idea that he might irritate the Germans even more however.

A good soldier, whether he leads a platoon or an army, is expected to look backward as well as forward; but he must think only forward.

We learned the value of research in World War II.

Anyone that goes to battle goes to battle knowing the mindset and tactics of their enemies.

Of your own indefatigable labor from early dawn and of your explicit instructions, that the batteries should reserve their ammunition, until the grand charge should commence, for which the enemy were undoubtedly preparing.

The British soldier can stand up to anything except the British War Office.

I started to make a study of the art of war and revolution and, whilst abroad, underwent a course in military training. If there was to be guerrilla warfare, I wanted to be able to stand and fight with my people and to share the hazards of war with them.

'What if?' history is a tricky game, but there is no doubt that the senior planners of D-Day - including Eisenhower and the British general Bernard Montgomery - believed that the Double Cross operation had played a pivotal role in the victory.

He is a butcher, and is not fit to be at the head of an army.

Generals do not always run wars the way they would like to, nor the troops under them.

I always admired Patton. Oh, sure, the stupid bastard was crazy. He was insane. He thought he was living in the Dark Ages. Soldiers were peasants to him. I didn't like that attitude, but I certainly respected his theories and the techniques he used to get his men out of their foxholes.

There were many military officers more senior to George C. Marshall when Franklin Delano Roosevelt selected him as the Chief of Staff for WWII.

There is no point in hiding that before the war we mostly learned to attack, and did not pay enough attention to such an important maneuver as retreat. Now we have paid for this. It turned out that the commanders and the staff were not sufficiently prepared to prepare and execute the retreat maneuver. Now, in the second week of war, we had in fact to learn from the beginning the most difficult art - the art of the execution of retreat.

History tells us that a general can move and feed an army as efficiently as he likes, but the real litmus test is the battlefield.

Our military sons and daughters that are placed in harm's way deserve the right equipment, the right training, and the right rules of engagement to win decisively on any field of battle.

To think about attacking is also to think about positioning.

You have to give the soldiers, the Army, a clear vision.

General Longstreet,when once in a fight, was a most brilliant soldier; but he was the hardest man to move I had in my army.

There is a great Field-Marshal, my friend, who arrays our battalions; Let us to Providence trust, and abide and work in our stations.

A people [America] that does not prepare to fight should then be morally prepared to surrender. To fail to prepare soldiers and citizens for limited, bloody ground action, and then to engage in it, is folly verging on the criminal.

Many opportunities have been lost and hundreds of valuable lives uselessly sacrificed for want of a strict observance of discipline. Its object is to enable an army to bring promptly into action the largest possible number of its men, in good order and under the control of their officers. Its effects are visible in all military history, which records the triumphs of discipline and courage far more frequently than those of numbers and resources.

General, you don't have a war plan! All you have is a kind of horrible spasm!

When you have resolved to fight a battle, collect your whole force. Dispense with nothing. A single battalion sometimes decides the day.

For every man who has learned to fight in arms will desire to learn the proper arrangement of an army, which is the sequel of the lesson.

You want to make me the best soldier possible. Go down and look at the standings. Look at the all-time standings. So far you're doing an excellent job with me. Congratulations. Now when are you going to put me up against a good army?