 |
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"I speak in the name
of the entire German people when I assure the world that we
all share the honest wish to eliminate the enmity that brings
far more costs than any possible benefits... It would be a wonderful
thing for all of humanity if both peoples would renounce force
against each other forever. The German people are ready to make
such a pledge."
Adolf Hitler - 14th
October 1933 |
|
"The assertion that
it is the intention of the German Reich to coerce the Austrian
State is absurd"
Adolf Hitler - 30th
January 1934 |
|
"Germany neither intends
nor wishes to interfere in the internal affairs of Austria,
to annex Austria, or to conclude an Anschluss."
Adolf
Hitler - 21st May 1935 |
|
"Germany has concluded
a Non-Aggression Pact with Poland... We shall adhere to it unconditionally...
we recognize Poland as the home of a great and nationally conscious
people."
Adolf Hitler - 21st May
1935 |
|
"National Socialist
Germany wants peace because of its fundamental convictions.
And it wants peace also owing to the realization of the simple
primitive fact that no war would be likely essentially to alter
the distress in Europe... The principal effect of every war
is to destroy the flower of the nation... Germany needs peace
and desires peace!"
Adolf Hitler
- 21st May 1935 |
|
"Germany has solemnly
recognized and guaranteed France her frontiers as determined
after the Saar plebiscite... We thereby finally renounced all
claims to Alsace-Lorraine, a land for which we have fought two
great wars."
Adolf Hitler - 21st
May 1935 |
|
"Germany neither intends
nor wishes to interfere in the internal affairs of Austria,
to annex Austria, or to conclude an Anschluss."
Adolf
Hitler - 21st May 1935 |
 |
"The League of Nations
is still strong enough by its collective actions to avert or
arrest aggression... There is no room for bargaining or compromise."
Foreign Commissar Litvinoff - 21st September
1938 |
|
"I have no further interest
in the Czecho-Slovakian State, that is guaranteed. We want no
Czechs"...
Adolf Hitler - 26th September
1938 |
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"In the course of my
life I have very often been a prophet, and have usually been
ridiculed for it. During the time of my struggle for power,
it was in the first instance only the Jewish race that received
my prophecies with laughter when I said that I would one day
take over the leadership of the state and with it that of the
whole nation and that I would then among other things settle
the Jewish problem...but I think that for some time now they
have been laughing on the other side of their face. Today I
will once more be a prophet: if the international Jewish financiers
in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations
once more into a world war, then the result will not be the
Bolshevising of the earth and thus the victory of Jewry, but
the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe!".
Adolf
Hitler - Speech to the Reichstag - 30th January 1939 |
|
"Czechoslovakia has ceased to exist"
Adolf Hitler - 15th
March 1939 |
 |
"In the event of any
action which clearly threatened Polish independence and which
the Polish Government accordingly considered it vital to resist
with their national forces, His Majesty's Government would feel
themselves bound at once to lend the Polish Government all support
in their power. They have given the Polish Government an assurance
to this effect. I may add that the French Government have authorized
me to make it plain that they stand in the same position in
this matter."
Neville Chamberlain
- 31st March 1939 |
|
“This morning the British
Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government a final note
stating that unless we heard from them by eleven o'clock that
they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland,
a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you that
no such understanding has been received and that consequently
this country is at war with Germany.”
Neville
Chamberlain - 3rd September 1939 |
|
"This is a sad day for
all of us, and to none is it sadder than to me. Everything that
I have worked for, everything that I have believed in during
my public life, has crashed into ruins. There is only one thing
left for me to do: That is, to devote what strength and powers
I have to forwarding the victory of the cause for which we have
to sacrifice so much... I trust I may live to see the day when
Hitlerism has been destroyed and a liberated Europe has been
re-established."
Neville Chamberlain - 3rd September 1939 |
| |
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"My strength has now
been reduced to the equivalent of 36 squadrons...we should be
able to carry on the war single-handed for some time if not
indefinitely."
Sir Hugh Dowding -
RAF Fighter Command - May 1940 |
|
"We must be very careful
not to assign to this deliverance the attributes of a victory.
War's are not won by evacuations."
Winston
Churchill - To Parliament - 4th June 1940 |
|
"Dunkirk has fallen...
with it has ended the greatest battle of world history. Soldiers!
My confidence in you knew no bounds. You have not disappointed
me."
Adolf Hitler - Order of the Day
- 5th June 1940 |
 |
"Mussolini is quite
humiliated because our troops have not moved a step forward.
Even today they have not succeeded in advancing and have halted
in front of the first French fortification which put up some
resistance."
Count Ciano - Italian
Foreign Minister (written in his diary) - 21st June 1940 |
|
"My Luftwaffe is invincible...And
so now we turn to England. How long will this one last - two,
three weeks?"
Hermann Goring - June
1940 |
|
"Like so many of our people, we
have now had a personal experience of German barbarity which
only strengthens the resolution of all of us to fight through
to final victory."
King George VI
- September 1940 |
|
"Never has a military operation
been undertaken so much against the will of the commanders."
Count Ciano - Italian Foreign Minister (Commenting on the Italian
Advance into Egypt) - September 1940 |
|
"Never in the field of human conflict,
has so much, been owed by so many, to so few!"
Winston
Churchill - September 1940 |
|
"Once more a red fire blows steeply
upwards...the factory will do no more work for Herr Churchill...tomorrow
morning Coventry will lie in smoke and ruins."
Josef
Goebbels - Ministry of Propaganda - September 1940 |
|
"Fuhrer, we are on the march! Victorious
Italian troops crossed the Greco-Albanian frontier at dawn today!"
Benito Mussolini - (to Adolf Hitler) 28th October
1940 |
 |
"Nothing would please me better
than if they would give me three months and then attack here."
General Douglas Macarthur - Supreme Allied Commander of South-West
Pacific - (Speaking of the Philippines) 5th December
1940 |
|
"Singapore... could
only be taken after a siege by an army of at least 50,000 men...
its not considered possible that the Japanese...would embark
on such a mad enterprise."
Winston Churchill
- 1940 |
| |
 |
 |
"In my opinion the limit
of endurance has been reached by the troops under my command...our
position here is hopeless"
Major General Freyberg
VC - (Shortly before the evacuation of Crete) - May
1941 |
|
"We did not intend to
fight enemy warships...but we took up the fight. The crew have
behaved magnificently. we shall win or die."
Admiral
Lütjens - Commander of the Bismarck's Naval Squadron
- 25th May 1941 |
|
"I should like to pay
the highest tribute for the most gallant fight put up against
impossible odds"
Admiral Tovey - (After
the sinking of the Bismarck) - 27th May 1941 |
|
"I've had my fill of
Hitler. These conferences called by a ringing of a bell are
not to my liking; the bell is rung when people call their servants.
And besides, what kind of conferences are these? For five hours
I am forced to listen to a monologue which is quite fruitless
and boring."
Benito Mussolini - (To
his son in law) - 10th June 1941 |
|
"This war is not an
ordinary war. It is the war of the entire Russian people. Not
only to eliminate the danger hanging over our heads, but to
aid all people groaning under the yoke of Fascism"
Josef Stalin - 22nd June 1941 |
|
"The Red Army and Navy and the whole
Soviet people must fight for every inch of Soviet soil, fight
to the last drop of blood for our towns and villages...onward,
to victory!"
Josef Stalin - July 1941 |
|
"We secured peace for our country
for one and a half years, as well as an opportunity of preparing
our forces for defense if fascist Germany risked attacking our
country in defiance of the pact. This was a definite gain to
our country and a loss for fascist Germany."
Josef
Stalin - 3rd July 1941 - (Speaking of the 1939 non-aggression
pact between the USSR and Germany) |
|
"The Russian colossus...has been
underestimated by us...whenever a dozen divisions are destroyed
the Russians replace them with another dozen."
General
Franz Halder - Army Chief of Staff - August 1941 |
 |
"A gigantic fleet...
has massed in Pearl Harbor. This fleet will be utterly crushed
with one blow at the very beginning of hostilities...Heaven
will bear witness to the righteousness of our struggle."
Rear-Admiral Ito - Chief of Staff of the Combined
Fleet - November 1941 |
|
"As a result of the
cold, the machine-guns were no longer able to fire...the result
of all this was a panic...The battle worthiness of our infantry
is at an end"
General Heinz Guderian
- November 1941 |
|
"Oh merciful lord…
crown our effort with victory… and give us faith in the
inevitable power of light over darkness, of justice over evil
and brutal force… Of the cross of Christ over the Fascist
swastika… so be it, amen."
Sergei
- Archbishop of Moscow - 27th November 1941 |
|
"The fate of the Empire
rests on this enterprise every man must devote himself totally
to the task in hand."
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
- Commander in Chief of the Japanese Navy - 7th December 1941 |
|
"Yesterday, December
7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - The United States
of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and
air forces of the Empire of Japan...As Commander-in-Chief of
the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken
for our defense...With confidence in our armed forces - with
the unbounded determination of our people - we will gain the
inevitable triumph - so help us God."
President
F.D. Roosevelt - 8th December 1941 |
|
"Before we're through
with them, the Japanese language will be spoken only in hell.!
Admiral Halsey - December 1941 |
| |
 |
|
"With Malta in enemy
hands, the Mediterranean route would be completely closed to
us...this tiny island was a vital feature in the defence of
our Middle East position."
General Hastings
Ismay - 1942 |
|
"The assault on Malta
will cost us many casualties...but...I consider it absolutely
essential for the future development of the war. If we take
Malta, Libya will be safe."
Count Ugo Cavallero
- Italian Chief of Staff 1940-1943 |
|
"You are doomed... you
have already cut rations by a half...but your prestige and honour
have been upheld"
General Homma -
Speaking of General MacArthur - January 1942 |
|
"I'll come back as soon
as I can with as much as I can. In the meantime, you've got
to hold."
General MacArthur - Speaking
to General Wainwright - March 1942 |
|
"My attack on Singapore
was a bluff, a bluff that worked... I was very frightened that
all the time the British would discover our numerical weakness
and lack of supplies and force me into disastrous street fighting"
General Yamashita - 1942 |
|
"On the European Front, the most
important development of the past year has been the crushing
German offensive against the great armies of Russia"
President Franklin D. Roosevelt - 29th April
1942 |
|
"The fruits of victory are tumbling
into our mouths too quickly."
Emperor Hirohito
(On his Birthday) - 29th April 1942 |
|
"Japan...is operating in the Pacific
in the hope of extending her hold over New Guinea...from such
a position she...could carry out raids on Australia...whilst
awaiting our final defeat by Germany"
General
Alan Brooke - 5th May 1942 |
|
"To every man of us, Tobruk was
a symbol of British resistance, and we were now going to finish
with it for good."
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
- June 1942 |
 |
"Am sending mobile troops out tonight.
Not possible to hold tomorrow... Will resist to the last man
and last round."
Major General Hendrik Klopper
- (Commander of the Tobruk Garrison to General Ritchie) - 21st
June 1942 |
|
"Our citizens can now rejoice that
a momentous victory is in the making. Perhaps we will be forgiven
if we claim we are about midway to our objective."
Admiral Chester Nimitz - June 1942 |
|
"Just as the defending force has
gathered valuable experience from...Dieppe, so has the assaulting
force...He will not do it like this a second time."
Field Marshal von Rundstedt - August 1942 |
|
"The Russian convoys
are and always have been an unsound operation of this war"
Rear Admiral L.H.K Hamilton - September 1942 |
|
"The battle is going
very heavily against us. We're being crushed by the enemy weight...We
are facing very difficult days, perhaps the most difficult that
a man can undergo."
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
- 3rd November 1942 |
|
"Never in history has
the navy landed an army at the planned time and place. But if
you land us anywhere within 50 miles of Fedela and within 1
week of D-Day. I'll go ahead and win."
Major
General George Patton - November 1942 (Commenting of
the North Africa Landings) |
| |
 |
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"Most of the men are
stricken with dysentery...Starvation is taking many lives and
it is weakening our already extended lines. We are doomed. "
Major-General Kensaku Oda (Referring to the
state of Japanese troops on Guadalcanal)- 12th January 1943 |
|
"Goddam it, you'll never
get the Purple Heart hiding in a foxhole! Follow me!"
Captain Henry P. Jim Crowe - 13th January 1943
- (Guadalcanal) |
|
"The defeat of the enemy
in the Battle of El Alamein, the pursuit of his beaten army
and the final capture of Tripoli...has all been accomplished
in three months. This is probably without parallel in history."
Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery - 23rd
January 1943 |
|
"The troops of the Don
Front at 4pm on the 2nd February 1943 completed the rout and
destruction of the encircled group of enemy forces in Stalingrad.
Twenty two division have been destroyed or taken prisoner."
Lieutenant General Rokossovski - February 1943 |
|
"Even without the allied
offensive, I should have had to capitulate by the 1st June at
the latest as I had no more to eat."
General
Oberst von Arnim - May 1943 - (Commenting after the
Axis surrender in Tunisia) |
|
"…Our losses…have
reached an intolerable level. The enemy air force played a decisive
role in inflicting these high losses."
Grand
Admiral Carl Donitz - C-in-C of the German Navy - 24th
May 1943 |
|
"The heavy casualties
inflicted on the enemy have greatly affected his morale and
will prove to be a turning point in the battle of the Atlantic."
Admiral Sir Max Horton - May 1943 - Commander
of the Western Approaches |
|
"The disaster of Stalingrad
profoundly shocked the German people and armed forces alike...Never
before in Germany's history had so large a body of troops come
to so dreadful an end."
General Siegfried
von Westphal - 1943 |
|
"No amphibious attack
in history had approached this one in size. Along miles of coastline
there were hundreds of vessels and small boats afloat and ant-like
files of advancing troops ashore."
General
Dwight Eisenhower - July 1943 (Sicily) |
|
"Soldiers of the Reich! This day
you are to take part in an offensive of such importance that
the whole future of the war may depend on its outcome."
Adolf Hitler - 5th July 1943 |
|
"It would have been
easier to fight alone with inadequate forces than to have to
accept...responsibility for our ally's lack of fighting qualities
and dubious loyalty."
Field Marshal Albert
Kesselring - August 1943 (After the German evacuation
of Sicily) |
|
"The Germans may claim
with some justification to have won if not a victory at least
an important success over us."
General Alexander
- September 1943 |
|
"They (the Americans)
are, I think, a bit unwarrantably cock-a-hoop as a result of
their limited experience to date. But they are setting about
it in a realistic and business-like way...I have a feeling that
they will do it..."
Air Vice-Marshal Sir John
Slessor - 1943 |
|
"The enemy knows that
he must wipe out our fighters. Once he has done that, he will
be able to play football with the German people."
Field
Marshal Erhard Milch - 1943 |
|
"The 2nd Marine Division
has been especially chosen by the High Command for the assault
on Tarawa...what you do there will set a standard for all future
operations in the central pacific area."
Major
General Julian C. Smith - Commander of the U.S. 2nd
Marine Division - November 1943 |
|
"Casualties many; Percentage
of dead not known; Combat efficiency; we are winning."
Colonel David M. Shoup - (Tarawa) - 21st November
1943 |
| |
 |
|
"I say that the bombing
of the Abbey...was a mistake...It only made our job more difficult,
more costly in terms of men, machines and time"
Lieutenant
General Mark Clark - Commander of the U.S. Fifth Army
- 1944 (After the bombing of Monte Cassino) |
|
"Had Clark given more
heed to Juin's views...the savage battles of Cassino would probably
never have been fought and the venerable house of St Benedict
would have been unscathed"
Rudolf Böhmler
- 1st Fallschirmjäger Division - 1944 (After the bombing
of Monte Cassino) |
|
"(Wingate was) and absolute born
genius with a mystical fire about him."
Earl
Mountbatton of Burma - Speaking after the death of
Brigadier Orde Wingate - March 1944 |
|
"The enemy must be annihilated before
he reaches our main battlefield...We must stop him in the water...destroying
all his equipment while it is still afloat"
Field
Marshall Erwin Rommel - 22nd April 1944 |
|
"At Sevastopol stands the Seventeenth
Army, and at Sevastopol, the Soviets will bleed to death."
General Jaenicke – Commander of the Seventeenth
Army - May 1944 |
|
"Permit me, in the name of the Front
Command, to present you with the keys to the Crimea."
Marshall Biryuzov - Commander of the 4th Ukrainian
Front to Marshall Vasilevski - May 1944 |
|
"Sure, we want to go home. We want
this war over with. The quickest way to get it over with is
to go get the bastards who started it. The quicker they are
whipped, the quicker we can go home. The shortest way home is
through Berlin and Tokyo. And when we get to Berlin, I am personally
going to shoot that paper hanging son-of-a-bitch Hitler. Just
like I'd shoot a snake!"
General George S.
Patton - (addressing to his troops before Operation
Overlord) - 5th June 1944 |
|
"We want to get the hell over there.
The quicker we clean up this Goddamned mess, the quicker we
can take a little jaunt against the purple pissing Japs and
clean out their nest, too. Before the Goddamned Marines get
all of the credit."
General George S. Patton
- (addressing to his troops before Operation Overlord) - 5th
June 1944 |
|
"Your task will not be an easy one.
Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened.
He will fight savagely"
General Dwight Eisenhower
- 6th June 1944 |
|
"At the present time, it is still
too early to say whether this is a large-scale diversionary
attack or the main effort"
German C-in-C West
- Morning Report for the 6th June 1944 |
|
"Hell is on us."
Mamoru
Shigemitsu - Japanese Foreign Minister's comments at
the capture of Saipan - June 1944 |
|
"In spite of intense efforts, the
moment has drawn near when this front, already so heavily strained,
will break. I consider it my duty to bring these conclusions
to your notice,...my fuhrer."
Field Marshal
Gunther von Kluge - C-in-C West - July 1944 |
|
"For the first time
a British force had met, held and decisively defeated a major
Japanese attack, and followed this up by driving the enemy out
of the strongest possible natural positions."
General
Bill Slim - Commander of the British Fourteenth Army
(Commenting on the Second Battle of Arakan) - July 1944 |
|
"I have always considered
Saipan the decisive battle of the Pacific offensive…(it
was) the naval and military heart and brain of the Japanese
defence strategy."
Lieutenant General
Holland M. Smith - Commander of the US Fleet Marine Force in
the Pacific - July 1944 |
|
"Attended thanksgiving
service…for liberation of Paris…hearing the Marseillaise
gave me a great thrill. France seemed to wake again after being
knocked out for five years."
General Sir Alan
Brooke - 28th August 1944 |
|
"Defend Paris to the
last, destroy all bridges over the Seine and devastate the city."
Adolf Hitler - August 1944 |
|
"We shall solve this
problem, and afterwards Warsaw as the Capital and the pool of
intelligentsia of that nation will be destroyed."
Heinrich
Himmler - August 1944 |
|
"In all my years as a soldier,
I have never seen me fight so hard."
Lieutenant General Wilhelm Bittrich - Commander
of II SS Panzer Korps - (Commenting on the British Paratroopers
at Arnhem) - September 1944 |
|
”I will break into Leyte Gulf
and fight to the last man…would it not be shameful to
have the fleet remaining intact while our nation perishes?”
Vice-Admiral Takeo Kurita - 1944 |
|
”In case opportunity for destruction
of a major portion of the enemy fleet is offered, or can be
created, such destruction becomes the primary task.”
Admiral Chester Nimitz - In his
order to Halsey, prior to the Battle of Leyte Gulf - October
1944 |
|
”The only words I spoke to the
British commander in the negotiations for the surrender of
Singapore were ‘All I want to hear from you is yes or
no’. I expected to put the same question to MacArthur.”
General Yamashita - Manila – 10th October
1944 |
|
”Let the indomitable
spirit of Bataan and Coregidor lead on…In the name of
your sacred dead, strike! Let no heart be faint. Let every
arm be steeled.”
General Douglas MacArthur – On the beach at Palo, broadcasting
his return – 24th October 1944 |
| |
 |
|
"The losses were heavy,
but all ranks would willingly undertake another operation under
similar conditions…We have no regrets."
Major
General Robert Urquhart - Commander of 1st British
Airborne Division - (Commenting on the British defeat at Arnhem)
- January 1945 |
|
"The raising of that
flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next 500 years."
James Forrestal - Secretary of the Navy - 23rd
February 1945 |
|
"Among the men who fought
on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue."
Fleet
Admiral Chester W. Nimitz - 16th March 1945 |
|
"Attacks on cities are
strategically justified in so far as they tend to shorten the
war and so preserve the lives of allied soldiers."
Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur "Bomber" Harris
- 29th March 1945 |
|
"It is on this beautiful
day that we celebrate the Fuhrers birthday and thank him for
he is the only reason why Germany is still alive today"
Josef Goebbels - Ministry of Propaganda - 26th
April 1945 |
| |
 |
|
"In the burning and
devastated cities, we daily experienced the direct impact of
war. It spurred us to do our utmost...the bombing and the hardships
that resulted from them (did not) weaken the morale of the populace."
Albert Speer - Chief of the German War
Economy (Speaking after the War) |
|
"The battle of Kursk...
the forcing of the Dnieper... and the liberation of Kiev, left
Hitlerite Germany facing catastrophe."
General
Vasili I. Chuikov - Commander of the 8th Guards Army
- (Speaking after the war) |
|
"I have returned many
times to honour the valiant men who died…every man who
set foot on Omaha Beach was a hero."
Lieutenant
General Omar Bradley - Commander of the US First Army
- (Speaking after the war) |
|
"Hitler's large-scale
demands for the Mediterranean meant that...the plans for...an
'Eastern Wall' were overtaken by the increasingly rapid advance
of the Red Army"
Lieutenant General Warlimont
- (Speaking after the war) |
