"Best War Quotes: Who is the King of the War One Liner" Topic

It's nearing that time of year where we're probably more inclined towards looking back and remembering the past. Thought it might be interesting to see what your most memorable wartime quote is. Whether it's philosophical, insightful, intelligent, humorous, religious, hopeful, stupid, or even despicably evil; Just as long as it struck you as memorable for whatever reason.

I have several but one of my favourite (less serious) Stallone/Schwarzenegger type one-liner quotes is accredited to LT. Waverly Wray; a US paratrooper officer, Wray seemingly was a big hulking woodsman from Mississippi. Deeply religious, he was nicknamed the "deacon" by his comrades. He was a veteran of Sicily and Italy and he was described by his commander as the most experienced and skilled of infantry men as could still be alive.

On the morning of June 7th as he single-handedly knocked out a German battalion CO and seven of his staff he was hit several times through his jacket and had half his right ear blown off by two Germans. After he picked each of them off with two single shots to the head, he returned back to the command post.

Arriving back with his bullet torn jacket covered in blood and his right ear half missing he requested more grenades from his CO who looking at his miserable state remarked, "They have been getting kind of close to you, haven't they Waverly?"

To which Wray replied with a slight grin, "Not as close as I've been getting to them."

Another memorable one has to be Abrams' line made even more famous by the show Band of Brothers when the Germans surround Bastogne:

"They've got us surrounded again, the poor bastards."

Patton and Churchill of course have a few beauties between them… but what are your favourites?

And Happy New Year!

I like Patton's direction to his lead armoured div commanders on the dash to the Rhine. "Keep going. When you run out of gas, get out and walk."

Old Viking Proverb

"Always remember to pillage BEFORE you burn"

the all time best is still not only one line but one word, "Nuts"

Leonidas: "Come and take them"

"Retreat hell, we're just attacking in another direction!" – Major-General Oliver P. Smith, USMC

I was going to post the Abrams line that the OP suggested.

I do like the "Oh, so we get parachutes, eh?" line by the Ghurkas, even though it isn't true.

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I would go with "Nuts" or along the same lines, the Waterloo classic "Merde"

I'm kind of fond of the classics:

"Come on you apes, do you want to live forever?" -Dan Daly.

"They are in front of us, behind us, and we are flanked on both sides by an enemy that outnumbers us 29:1. They can't get away from us now!"
"Great. Now we can shoot at those bastards from every direction."
"We're surrounded. That simplifies our problem of getting to these people and killing them." – November 1950, during Chosin Reservoir campaign
All from Chesty Puller.

The "live forever" line is originally from Frederick the Great. "Forward you cowards!! Would you live forever?"

General Sir Charles Napier, upon the conquest of Scinde:

'Peccavi'

"They couldn't Hit an elephant at this distance." has to be one of the great, if unintentional, one liners.

Sir Jacob Astley Royalist Commander at Edgehill

"O Lord, Thou knowest how busy I must be this day. If I forget Thee, do not forget me."

Leonidas's reply at Thermopylae, when told that the Persian arrows would fly so thick that they'd block out the Sun: "Then we'll fight in the shade!"

Grant's "I purpose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer."

"We're not retreating; we're just advancing in a different direction." Some Marine commander in Korea, forget which one.

From the Winter War:
I wish the Ruskies had brought more machine guns, we could use a few more.

I do like Astley's prayer. Another favourite from Arnhem where the Paras are faced by a German Officer who approaches under a white flag and announces that he has come to discuss terms for surrender. The reply is (and I may be misquoting slightly):

"We don't have the facilities"

German……."what?"

"I'm sorry we would like to take you all prisoner but we don't have the facilities"

The back story to the Napier quote is that he was confessing to the Government back home that he had exceeded his orders. It's one of my favorites, also.

Caesar's "veni, vidi, vici" is another contender for the best Latin one-liner.

Rick

"Veni, vidi, vici." Julius Caesar

It is well that war is so terrible, lest we grow too fond of it. R.E.Lee

When the Japanese fleet turned away from their attack on the escort carriers of Taffy 3 (battle of Samar), a sailor is reported to have said, "Damn it, boys, they're getting away!"

"There´s something wrong with our bloody ships today"- Beatty at Jutland.

They couldn't hit an elephant at this ra…

Winston Churchill: There Is Nothing So Exhilarating As To Be Shot At Without Effect

Anything from Chesty

""They are in front of us, behind us, and we are flanked on both sides by an enemy that outnumbers us. They can't get away from us now!"

"Remember, you are the 1st Marines! Not all the Communists in Hell can overrun you!"

At a reception in 1814, King Louis XVIII apologized on behalf of French officers who turned their backs on Wellington.

Wellington said "Tis of no matter your Majesty. I have seen their backs before."

And of course every fan of Bugs Bunny reveres "You may fire when you are ready Gridley".

For short quotes, hard to beat Louis IV and the quote on his cannon, "The Last Argument of Kings" (Ultima Ratio Regum for the classical scholars) – which is also as I recall the motto of the gunners in the 11th Marines

For my favourite quote by Napoleon at Austerlitz, "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake"

My favourite Napoleonic quote, though, was by Colonel Louis Lepic at Eylau – "Haut les tętes! La mitraille c'est pas de la merde." "Heads up, gentlemen, these are bullets, not s"

I've always though Union Brig. Gen. C. F. Smith got it right at Fort Donelson: "Come on you volunteers, come on. This is your chance. You volunteered to be killed for love of your country and now you can be."

One of my faves is from the Battle of Manila Bay.

The American Navy officers had partied hard the previous
night and the seniors among them were somewhat hung over.

One captain, hearing his men break out into raucous
cheering at the sight of burning and exploding Spanish
ships is reputed to have said: 'Don't cheer boys – the
poor devils are dying !'

Recorded by one of his subordinates were his actual
words: 'Shut up that G-- D----- racket ! This is no
madhouse !'

Some chicken…….some neck. -- Winston Churchill

YouTube link

"Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill eveyone you meet." – General "Mad Dog" Mattis

Lee John Ayre & Elenderil

While a lot of folks recall Sir Jacob Astley's prayer,

"O Lord, Thou knowest how busy I must be this day. If I forget Thee, do not Thou forgetest me."

Few finish the quotation:

"March On Boys!!!"

Makes it rather more of a soldier's sentiment, doesn't it?
A confident yet reverent commander's entreaty before battle.

I'd prefer to think it wasn't apocryphal, ALL of it.

"O Lord, Thou knowest how busy I must be this day, if I forget Thee, do not Thou forgetest me. March On Boys!!!"
Sir Jacob Astley
Edgehill, 23 October 1642

Not exactly a soldier's comment, but…

Caroline Bonaparte, younger sister of Napoleon, was passenger aboard a sailing ship arriving in harbor. The ship's captain hastened to explain to his distinguished guest that as the ship approached the harbor, the fortress's cannons would fire a salute, and she should not be alarmed by the gunfire.

Caroline replied: "The sound of cannons is neither new nor frightening to a Bonaparte".

Thank God for small wars!

- Theodore Rooseveld-

"I hope you bloody well crash" Gunner Spike Milligan, January 1943

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"I  come in peace. I didn't bring artillery. But I'm pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you with me, I'll kill you all."

General Mattis

'He either fears his fate too much,
Or his deserts are small,
That dares not put it to the touch
To gain or lose it all.'

James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose

A stanza that I routinely mutter under my breath when I'm about to do something stupid on the wargames table.

Giving orders is easy, getting them obeyed is hard. Patton.

Mistakes in the initial deployment cannot be rectified. Von Moltke.

Both very apposite in the rough and tumble of corporate life. Patton had lots of interesting things to say about leadership in general.

The Spartan's remark after the Persians threatened to darken the skies with arrows. "Oh good, we get to fight in the shade."

I have Sind…

Well at least someone got Napier's joke.

"Out of ammunition. God Save The King." – Whoever penned that signal knew his business.

General (then Colonel) Arthur Taylor, commander of 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division on Omaha Beach on 6 June:
"There are two kinds of people who are staying on this beach: those who are dead and those who are going to die. Now let's get the hell out of here."

I cannot believe out of so many excellent responses to the OT, that NO ONE has mentioned a jolly red headed giant, every bit as cuddly as a saguaro cactus, with the moniker "William Tecumseh Sherman!"

In response to public criticism of his practices, he responded, "Vox populi, vox humbug!"

Confirming the bond between himself and U.S. Grant: "Grant stayed by me when I was crazy, and I'll stay by him when he's drunk."

And did anyone express the truth any more simply or better than this?

"War is all hell."

"Uncle Billy" Sherman, as profanely eloquent as any man who ought to know.

TVAG

Oh, and for Chacrinha,

"Nunc Fortunatus Sum"

TVAG

"No enemy bomber can reach the Ruhr. If one reaches the Ruhr, my name is not Goering. You may call me Meyer."

As Allied bombers devastated Germany; many ordinary Germans, especially in Berlin, took to calling him "Meyer".

"I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast, for I intend to go in harm's way."

Capt. John Paul Jones

Anonymous British soldier of his experience at Waterloo:

'I'll be hanged if I know anything about the matter, for I was all day trodden in the mud and ridden over be every scoundrel who had a horse!'

Just remembered:

Garman officer in occupied Paris to Pablo Picasso, on noticing his painting of Guernica: 'Did you do that?'

Picasso: 'No. you did.'

"If they want a war of extermination, they shall have one."

Joseph Stalin 6th November 1941.

My favorite from the ACW is the anonymous Union private who was stopped by a general as he was running to the rear: "Don't you love your country?" The reply was "Yes, and I'm trying to get back to it just as fast as I can!"