Infantry - Famous Historical Descriptions

Famous Historical Descriptions

• "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." Field Marshal Earl Wavell
• "I love the infantry because they are the underdogs. They are the mud-rain-frost-and-wind boys. They have no comforts, and they even learn to live without the necessities. And in the end they are the guys that wars can't be won without."Ernie Pyle
• "I'm convinced that the infantry is the group in the army which gives more and gets less than anybody else." Bill Mauldin, Up Front (1945)
• "Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime. Ask the infantry and ask the dead." Ernest Hemingway
• "The infantry doesn't change. We're the only arm where the weapon is the man himself." C.T. Shortis
• "Ah, yes, mere infantry — poor beggars…" Plautus
• "The army's infantry is its most essential component. Even today, no army can take and hold any ground without the use of infantry." George Nafziger
• "Aerial bombardment can obliterate, but only infantry can occupy" - a Finnish Army observation of the Operation Allied Force in the 1990s
• “I don’t know what effect these men will have upon the enemy, but, by God, they terrify me.” - the Duke of Wellington