"I shall proceed from the simple to the complex. But in war more than in any other subject we must begin by looking at the nature of the whole; for here more than elsewhere the part and the whole must always be thought of together."

Carl von Clausewitz

"The psychological effect of [attack is] far greater than any material damage inflicted. Whether the outcome of a battle is victory or defeat depends far more than the casualty roll. We knew .. that we played a part in that time-honoured aim of military tactics - making the enemy feel so insecure that he leaves the field. That, after all, is the object of all military manoeuvres whether they are attempts to outflank or direct frontal attacks. Sometimes soldiers and generals kid themselves with arguments about wars of attrition, that the basic principle of war is to destroy the enemy. But of course they are wrong, for it is when a feeling of insecurity corrodes the morale of the enemy that the battle is almost won." In Philip Warner, The SAS

Farran

"Getting the operational plan properly worked out by reconnaissance in advance is crucial to the subsequent success of any operation, which is why we were spending so much time looking at the options before the final decisions were made." Broken lives, p.41.

"Being where the action is taking place is one of the best lessons I learnt in Bosnia on how to conduct peacekeeping. It became a Battalion Group maxim: if there's trouble, get into the middle of it and calm things down by being there." Broken Lives p.279.

Bob Stewart

"Infantry combat, paticularly in close country, is a ghastly experience. For those taking part it resembles a major accident that lasts for hours, days and sometimes weeks." A Family at War

Sydney Jarey

"The enemy wire .. formed an impregnable barrier, eighty feet thick in places. The rolls of heavy, tempered steel were as high as a house, with five-inch barbs, stronger and thicker than anything seen on a rancher’s fence." Vimy

Pierre Berton

"The Russians have no Exocet. This was has shown us how dangerous it is for our defences to become too scenario-orientated." Senior officer at the time of the Falklands in The SAS

"In times of stress it is the resources of the mind rather than those of the body which enable the individual to face the issue." The SAS

"The psychological effect of [attack is] far greater than any material damage inflicted. Whether the outcome of a battle is victory or defeat depends far more than the casualty roll. We knew .. that we played a part in that time-honoured aim of military tactics - making the enemy feel so insecure that he leaves the field. That, after all, is the object of all military manoeuvres whether they are attempts to outflank or direct frontal attacks. Sometimes soldiers and generals kid themselves with arguments about wars of attrition, that the basic principle of war is to destroy the enemy. But of course they are wrong, for it is when a feeling of insecurity corrodes the morale of the enemy that the battle is almost won " The SAS

Philip Warner

"In peace nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility; but when the blast of war blows in our ears, then imitate the action of the tiger; stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, disguise fair nature with hard favour'd rage. . ." Henry V

William Shakespeare

"When you feel you cannot continue in your position for another minute, and all that is in human power has been done, that is the moment when the enemy is most exhausted, and when one step forward will give you the fruits of the struggle you have borne."

Sir Winston Churchill

"Obsolete weapons do not deter."

Margaret Thatcher

"War is the province of uncertainty; three-fourths of the things on which action in war is based lie hidden in the fog of uncertainty."

Clausewitz

"The conventional army loses if it does not win. The guerilla wins if he does not lose." Foreign Affairs, Jan 1969

Henry Kissinger

"The way to avoid what is strong is to strike what is weak."

Sun Tzu

"Opportunity in war is usually of greater value than bravery....Terrain is often of more value than bravery....Bravery is of more value than numbers."

Vegetius

"The use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment, but it does not remove the necessity of subduing again: and a nation is not governed, which is perpetually to be conquered." (1775)

"It is necessary only for the good man to do nothing for evil to triumph."

Edmund Burke

"We make war that we may live in peace."

Aristotle

"Information is the currency of victory on the battlefield."

Gen Gordon Sullivan, CSA (1993)

"Foolish, or even criminal, is the word to describe the behaviour of any Army that does not prepare itself to master all the various types of weapon ... that the enemy has or might have."

V I Lenin

"Of all men's miseries the bitterest is this: to know so much and have control over nothing."

Herodotus

ARMOUR

"If the cavalry were not very valuable in trench warfare, they did bring a little social tone to the battlefield."

Desmond Morton

"The art of concentrating strength at one point, forcing a breakthrough, rolling up and securing the flanks on either side, and then penetrating like lightning deep into his rear, before the enemy has time to react." (Blitzkrieg)

Erwin Rommel

"Tanks are easily identified, easily engaged, much-feared targets which attract all the fire on the battlefield. When all is said and done, a tank is a small steel box crammed with inflammable or explosive substances which is easily converted into a mobile crematorium for its highly skilled crew."

Brigadier Shelford Bidwell

ARTILLERY

"Being shelled is the real work of an infantry soldier, which no one talks about. Everyone has his own way of going about it. In general, it means lying face down and contracting your body into a small a space as possible."

Louis Simpson

"Blessed be those happy ages that were strangers to the dreadful fury of these devilish instruments of artillery, whose inventor I am satisfied is now in Hell, receiving the reward of his cursed invention, which is the cause that very often a cowardly base hand takes away the life of the bravest gentleman." Don Quixote

Miguel de Cervantes

"In May 1940 the German army burst through the Ardennes to crush the western allies. It enjoyed no significant advantage in numbers, and was outnumbered in both tanks and aircraft, but in Blitzkrieg the German army had a winning tactical method; and for determined professionalism its soldiers and airmen had no equals." The Navy: 1939 to the present day

Max Arthur