Chester W. Nimitz Quotes

We shall kill. If you have not killed at least one German a day, you have wasted that day... Do not count days; do not count miles. Count only the number of Germans you have killed.

The big fun in 'Battleship' is that there are no current battleships in the Navy today. The battleships are about 1,000 feet long and they have huge guns. They were what you saw in WWII. The last battleship that was used was the Missouri, which is what the Japanese surrendered to.

Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from falling hands we throw.

Who asks whether the enemy was defeated by strategy or valor?

Four or five frigates will do the business without any military force.

Sending our young men and women into battle is perhaps the most serious course of action a Nation can undertake.

We were taught to kill the enemy. They were evil. We were doing something good.

We are told that the American soldier does not know what he is fighting for. Now at least he will know what he is fighting against.

The generals were fighting machine guns with the breasts of gallant men.

The combat man isn't the same clean-cut lad because you don't fight a kraut by Marquis of Queensberry rules. You shoot him in the back, you blow him apart with mines, you kill or maim him the quickest and most effective way you can with the least danger to yourself. He does the same to you.

A naval power, next to the militia, is the natural defense of the United States.

My work as a naval officer in World War II enabled me to serve on 49 different South Pacific islands so that I came to know the area about as well as anyone.

Learning about WWII at the U.S. Naval Academy taught me about military tactics and the importance of fighting for our country's highest ideals.

This was like July 13th, 1943, the pivotal day of the Battle of the Kursk. We were like Alexander Vasilevsky, the Soviet general. If we attacked now, this minute, we had to keep on and on attacking until the enemy was run off his feet and the war was won. If we bogged down or paused for breath even for a second, we would be overrun again.

I know of nothing more exciting than war.

General," said the commander of the delinquent brigade, "I am persuaded that any further display of valor by my troops will bring them into collision with the enemy.

The sinews of war are five - men, money, materials, maintenance (food) and morale.

The colossus of World War II seemed to be like a pyramid turned upside down, and for the moment the whole burden of the war rested on the few hundred German fighter pilots on the Channel coast.

On December 7, 1941, an event took place that had nothing to do with me or my family and yet which had devastating consequences for all of us - Japan bombed Pearl Harbour in a surprise attack. With that event began one of the shoddiest chapters in the tortuous history of democracy in North America.

What the country needs is the annihilation of the enemy.

Before Guadalcanal the enemy advanced at his pleasure - after Guadalcanal he retreated at ours.

War makes early risers of us all.

I would have fought in WW2, so I wasn't a pacifist in the broader sense. I prefer to be a pacifist, but I think there are exceptions and times to defend yourself or your country, but that war wasn't one of them.

You may fire when you are ready Gridley.

And that is how we intend to destroy the enemy!" The superior shakes his head wearily. "Young man, the Soviets are our adversary. The Navy is the enemy.