Military Defeat Quotes

Our landings … have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops …. The troops, the air, and the navy did all that Bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone.

Germany was beaten after World War I, but it didn't take long for it to rise again as a much more malignant threat. The end of World War II was not to be a compromise; it was to come about from the total annihilation of the enemies' ability and will to make war.

History shows that there are no invincible armies and that there never have been.

Sir, I have the mortification to inform your Excellency that I have been forced to give up the posts of York and Gloucester, and to surrender the troops under my command, by capitulation on the 19th inst. as prisoners of war to the combined forces of America and France.

If we'd lost the war, we'd all have been prosecuted as war criminals.

The U.S. never lost a battle against North Vietnam, but it lost the war.

The strength of a nation should be expended to defend its own existence. It is totally wrong to forget that and to use one’s forces for the purposes of foreigners. Those who led the war, forgot our own existence and became prisoners of the Germans…

Once again the songs of the fatherland roared to the heavens along the endless marching columns, and for the last time the Lord's grace smiled on His ungrateful children.

The events of these last few days constitute one of the greatest defeats that this country and France have ever sustained. There can be no doubt that it is a tremendous victory for Herr Hitler.

It was announced as a French victory by the French Minister of War. I did not see any sign of victory but only the retreat of the French forces engaged in the battle.

Three factors defeated us in the West where I was in command. First, the unheard-of superiority of your air force, which made all movement in daytime impossible. Second, the lack of motor fuel - oil and gas - so that the Panzers and even the Luftwaffe were unable to move. Third, the systematic destruction of all railway communications so that it was impossible to bring one single railroad train across the Rhine.

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

Our soldiers fled the battle field as if mad … they threw down their rifles to avoid emasculation.

The battle of Varus is an enigma, not in a military but in a political point of view - not in its course, but in its consequences.

By the time Napoleon abandoned his army to its fate in Poland - arriving back in Paris on 5 December - it numbered fewer than 10,000 effectives. It was a disaster from which he would never recover.

It has become a sort of by-word among the common people here that the two Russian Generals who have conquered Napoleon and all his Marshalls are General Famine and Genera Frost..

When an army doesn't want to fight, you don't need much experience to win.

The history of England, who has always dealt most harshly with her vanquished foe in the few European wars in which she has taken part in modern times, gives us Germans an idea of the fate in store for us if defeated.

Washington's defeat in 1754 was followed by active military preparations on both sides.

History shows that there are no invincible armies.

It's not right to say that our loss in Vietnam turned out to be a gain. But lessons were learned. And they were the right lessons.

Battles are not won as frequently by geniuses as they are lost by idiots.

You cannot put Russia down on its knees and hold it there because Russia will ultimately pull out.

If wars were won by superior technology alone, the United States would not have been vanquished in Vietnam or waylaid in Afghanistan.

In 1975, the Americans suffered a spectacular military defeat at the hands of North Vietnam and the Vietcong, with U.S. helicopters seeking to rescue leading U.S. personnel from the tops of buildings as Vietnamese guerrillas closed in on the centre of Saigon.