Erwin Rommel Quotes

It's unbelievable what one squadron of twelve aircraft did to tip the balance.

Anyone who has to fight, even with the most modern weapons, against an enemy in complete command of the air, fights like a savage against modern European troops, under the same handicaps and with the same chances of success.

Nothing can stop the attack of aircraft except other aircraft.

Air warfare is a shot through the brain, not a hacking to pieces of the enemy's body.

If we lose the war in the air we lose the war and we lose it quickly.

In the long run sea power will be no match for air power.

Air power can either paralyze the enemy's military action or compel him to devote to the defense of his bases and communications a share of his straitened resources far greater that what we need in the attack.

Allied air power was the greatest single reason for the German defeat.

Victory, speedy and complete, awaits the side that employs air power as it should be employed.

Air power is new to all our countries. It brings advantages to some and weakens others; it calls for readjustment everywhere.

Тhe battlefield in the air will be the decisive one

To have command of the air means to be able to cut an enemy's army and navy off from their bases of operation and nullify their chances of winning the war.

The Navy can lose us the war, but only the Air Force can win it. Therefore our supreme effort must be to gain overwhelming mastery in the Air. The Fighters are our salvation . . . but the Bombers alone provide the means of victory. . . . In no other way at present visible can we hope to overcome the immense military power of Germany.

I think, sir, that these aeroplanes are going to spoil war. When they come over I can only tell my men to cover their heads with hay and make a noise like a mushroom!

You can always make peace with an F-16 in your pocket.

Air superiority, which the United States has taken for granted since World War II, is no longer assured. And, without control of the skies, U.S. ships and soldiers would be vulnerable in ways that are difficult to imagine.

Military history shows air action only cannot achieve the goal of defeating an enemy.

AI will allow the soldier to act and think much more quickly. Whoever gets to AI first, I believe, will have dominance for many years afterward.

I can't tell you the number of times I looked down at what was going on on the ground, or I was engaged in a fight somewhere, and I knew within a couple of minutes how I was going to screw up the enemy. And I knew it because I'd done so much reading.

In a battle, as in a siege, the art consists in concentrating very heavy fire on a particular point. The line of battle once established, the one who has the ability to concentrate an unlooked for mass of artillery suddenly and unexpectedly on one of these points is sure to carry the day.

A tactical retreat is not a bad response to a surprise assault, you know. First you survive. Then you choose your own ground. Then you counterattack.

The secret of success in battle lies often not so much in the use of one's own strength but in the exploitation of the other side's weaknesses.

And therefore those skilled in war bring the enemy to the field of battle and are not brought there by him.

The function and Navy in any future war will be to support the dominant air arm.

Fighter pilots rove in the area allotted to them in any way they like, and when they spot an enemy they attack and shoot them down.... Everything else is rubbish.