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Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell
10 quotes
“Let us be clear about three facts. First, all battles and all wars are won in the end by the infantryman. Secondly, the infantryman always bears the brunt. His casualties are heavier, he suffers greater extremes of discomfort and fatigue than the other arms. Thirdly, the art of the infantryman is less stereotyped and far harder to acquire in modern war than that of any other arm…. The infantryman has to use initiative and intelligence in almost every step he moves, every action he takes on the battle-field. We ought therefore to put our men of best intelligence and endurance into the Infantry.”
Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell (1883–1950) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In Praise of Infantry, The London Times, Thursday, 19 April 1945.
“The beginnings of any war by the British ('still as Saxon slow at starting, still as weirdly wont to win' [The Old Way - Adm Ronald Hopwood]) are always marked by improvidence, improvisations, and too often, alas, by impossibilities being asked of the troops.”
Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell (1883–1950) first seen 1948 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Clarke D. (1948). Seven Assignments. Jonathan Cape. p. 7.
“I can only say that I have always believed in doing everything possible in war to mystify and mislead one’s opponent….”
Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell (1883–1950) first seen 1948 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Clarke D. (1948). Seven Assignments. Jonathan Cape. p. 7.
“No amount of study or learning will make a man a leader unless he has the natural qualities of one.”
Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell (1883–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A bold general may be lucky, but no general can be lucky unless he is bold. The general who allows himself to be bound and hampered by regulations is unlikely to win a battle.”
Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell (1883–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is in peace that regulations and routine become important and that the qualities of boldness and originality are cramped.”
Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell (1883–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A general may succeed for some time in persuading his superiors that he is a good commander: he will never persuade his army that he is a good commander unless he has the real qualities of one.”
Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell (1883–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The higher commander who goes to Field Service Regulations for tactical guidance inspires about as much confidence as the doctor who turns to a medical dictionary for his diagnosis.”
Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell (1883–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The British have been a free people and are still a comparatively free people; and though we are not, thank Heaven, a military nation, this tradition of freedom gives to our junior leaders in war a priceless gift of initiative. So long as this initiative is not cramped by too many regulations, by too much formalism, we shall, I trust, continue to win our battles – sometimes in spite of our higher commanders.”
Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell (1883–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yet the British soldier himself is one of the world’s greatest humorists. That unhumorous race, the Germans, held an investigation after the late War into the causes of moral, and attributed much of the British soldier’s staying power to his sense of humour. They therefore decided to instil this sense into their own soldiers, and included in their manuals an order to cultivate it. They gave as an illustration in the manual one of Bairnsfather’s pictures of “Old Bill” sitting in a building with an enormous shell-hole in the wall. A new chum asks: “What made that hole?” “Mice,” replies “Old Bill.” In the German manual a solemn footnote of explanation is added: “It was not mice, it was a shell.”
Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell (1883–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source