Operation Compass - Quotes

Quotes

  • Bonner Fellers: "General Wavell told me they were going to do manoeuvres, so I went up as an observer, and God dammit — it was the works."
  • An anonymous Coldstream Guards officer describing prisoners taken: "We have about 5 acres of officers and 200 acres of other ranks." (About 20,000 and 810,000 square meters respectively.)
  • Anthony Eden: (after the battle of Bardia) "Never has so much been surrendered by so many to so few."
  • Rodolfo Graziani: (writing to Mussolini after the defeat) "In this theatre of operations a single armoured division is more important than an entire army."
  • Adolf Hitler: (said with amusement to his generals) "Failure has had the healthy effect of once more compressing Italian claims to within the natural boundaries of Italian capabilities."

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