Famous citations

[Walt's Daughter]

Here are some good sites which have gathered famous quotes from WWII:

 

http://www.worldwar-2.net/famous-quotes/fa...uotes-index.htm

 

Famous British quotes:

 

"My good friends this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honor. I believe it is peace in our time."

- Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (after he signed the Munich Pact with Germany)

 

"Arm yourselves, and be ye men of valour, and be in readiness for the conflict; for it is better for us to perish in battle than to look upon the outrage of our nation and our altar."

- Prime Minister Winston Churchill

 

"I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this government: I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."

- Prime Minister Winston Churchill

 

"Today we may say aloud before an awe-struck world: We are still masters of our fate. We are still captain of our souls."

- Prime Minister Winston Churchill

 

"Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."

- Prime Minister Winston Churchill

 

"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."

- Prime Minister Winston Churchill (about the Royal Air Force)

 

"We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be; we shall fight on beaches, landing grounds, in fields, in streets and on the hills. We shall never surrender and even if, which I do not for the moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, will carry on the struggle until in God's good time the New World with all its power and might, sets forth to the liberation and rescue of the Old."

- Prime Minister Winston Churchill (after the fall of France)

 

"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."

- Prime Minister Winston Churchill

 

"If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons."

- Prime Minister Winston Churchill

 

"I want to warn against underestimating. There will be bloody battles once the Allied forces run against Axis fortifications. Europe will not be conquered quickly. We must not make the mistake of underestimating the fortifications in France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Italy and in the Southeast. We must realize that attacking them will cost us much in blood and tears."

- Cyrill Falls, British Military Observer

 

"You are the forefront of the army that we will use in the course of the summer to cleanse Norway of the dreadful filth of Nazi tyranny."

- Prime Minister Winston Churchill (a speech to the survivors of the British destroyers "Hardy" and "Ellipse")

 

"We would fight not for the political future of a distant city [Danzig], rather for principles whose destruction would ruin the possibility of peace and security for the peoples of the earth."

- Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain

 

"India is not ready to take part in the present war, which would endanger its own freedom. The governments of France and England declared that they are waging war for democracy and freedom, yet they themselves betray the principles they espouse."

- Executive Committee of the Indian National Congress (September 23, 1939)

 

"We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. You ask, what is our policy? I say it is to wage war by land, sea and air--war with all our might and with all the strength God has given us--and to wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy."

- Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1940)

 

"Let that be realized. No survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival for the urge, the impulse of the ages, that mankind shall move forward toward his goal."

- Prime Minister Winston Churchill

 

"You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory. Victory at all costs. Victory in spite of all terrors. Victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival."

- Prime Minister Winston Churchill

 

"One man and one man alone has ranged the Italian people in deadly struggle against the British Empire and has deprived Italy of the sympathy and intimacy of the United States of America...One man has arrayed the trustees and inheritors of ancient Rome upon the side of the ferocious pagan barbarians...There lies the tragedy of Italian history and there stands the criminal who has wrought the deed of folly and of shame."

- Prime Minister Winston Churchill

 

"Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty and so bear ourselves that if the British Commonwealth and Empire last for a thousand years, men will still say 'This was their finest hour!'"

- Prime Minister Winston Churchill

 

"The German Chancellor and others gave the impression that they were not likely to embark on adventures involving force or at least war."

- Lord Halifax (1937)

 

"I am sure that the crossing of the frontier of Czechoslovakia by German armies or aviation in force will bring about the renewal of the World War. I am as certain as I was at the end of July, 1914, that England will march with France... Do not, I pray you, be misled upon this point..."

- Prime Minister Winston Churchill (before he became Prime Minister; speaking days before the Munich Agreement, 1938)

 

"In spite of the hardness and ruthlessness I thought I saw in his face, I got the impression that here was a man who could be relied upon when he had given his word."

- Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (1938, days prior to the Munich Agreement, speaking about Herr Hitler)

 

"However much we may sympathize with a small nation confronted by a big and powerful neighbor, we cannot in all circumstances undertake to involve the whole British Empire in a war simply on her account. If we have to fight it must be on larger issues than that..."

- Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (1938, about the conflict between Germany and Czechoslavkia)

 

"We have sustained a total and unmitigated defeat... we are in the midst of a disaster of the first magnitude. The road down the Danube... the road to the Black Sea has been open... All the countries of Mittel Europa and the Danube valley, one after another, will be drawn in the vast system of Nazi politics... radiating from Berlin... And do not suppose that this is the end. It is only the beginning..."

- Prime Minister Winston Churchill (before he became Prime Minister; after the signing of the Munich Agreement)

 

"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 thier power. They have given the Polish Government as 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."

- Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (March 31, 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, everthing 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."

- Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (September 3, 1938 on the BBC)

 

"The strongest army in the world [the French] facing no more than twenty-six [German] divisions, sitting still and sheltering behind steel and concrete while a quixotically valiant ally was being exterminated!"

- General J. F. C. Fuller (speaking of the "Phony War" between France and Germany)

 

"To have the United States at our side was to me the greatest joy. Now at this very moment I knew the United States was in the war, up to the neck and in to the death. So we had won after all!...Hitler's fate was sealed. Mussolini's fate was sealed. As for the Japanese, they would be ground to powder."

- Prime Minister Winston Churchill (after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor)

 

"Britain and France had to choose between war and dishonor. They chose dishonor."

- Prime Minister Winston Churchill [summitted by Julie]

 

"I like a man who grins when he fights."

- Prime Minister Winston Churchill

 

"We are having shock after shock out here. The damage to the battleships at this time is a disaster... One cannot but admire the cold-blooded bravery and enterprise of these Italians."

- Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, Commander in Chief of Britain's Mediterranean Fleet (speaking of the Italian Navy Frogmen)

 

"Everyone has the jitters, seeing objects swimming about at night and hearing movements on ships' bottoms. It must stop."

- Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, Commander in Chief of Britain's Mediterranean Fleet (speaking of the Italian Navy Frogmen)

 

"Before Alamein, we had no victories. After Alamein, we had no defeats."

- Prime Minister Winston Churchill

 

======================

 

France

 

"I make to France the gift of my person, to attenuate her suffering... The combat must cease"...

- Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain, Premier of France and later Chief of State at Vichy France (on a radio broadcast before he signed the armistice between France and Germany)

 

"If the blood of France and of Germany flows again, as it did twenty-five years ago, in a longer and even more murderous war, each of the two peoples will fight with confidence in its own victory, but the most certain victors will be the forces of destruction and barbarism."

- Édouard Daladier, French Premier (1939)

 

"I declare that the French Government has ordered me to sign these terms of armistice... Forced by the fate of arms to cease the struggle in which we were engaged on the side of the Allies, France sees imposed on her very hard conditions. France has the right to expect in the future negotiations that Germany show a spirit which will permit the two great neighboring countries to live and work in peace."

- General Huntziger (1940, after the signing of the armistice)

 

"The Axis Powers and France have an identical interest in seeing the defeat of England accomplished as soon as possible. Consequently, the French Government will support, within the limits of its ability, the measures which the Axis Powers may take to this end."

- Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain, Chief of State of Vichy France

 

"When dealing with a force as corrupt and evil as Hitler's Germany that there was no middle ground -- to be "neutral" in that type of conflict was to in fact support the side of Hitler's Reich."

- Albert Camus, one of the leading writers of the French Resistance and editor of Combat, then an important underground newspaper

 

"France has lost a battle. But France has not lost the war. A makeshift government may have capitulated, giving way to panic, forgetting honour, delivering their country into slavery. Yet nothing is lost! Nothing is lost because this war is a world war. In the free universe, immense forces have not yet been brought into play. Some day these forces will crush the enemy. On that day France must be present at the victory. She will then regain her liberty an her greatness. That is why I ask all Frenchmen, wherever they may be, to unite with me in action, in sacrifice and in hope. Our country is in danger of death. Let us fight to save it."

- General Charles de Gaulle, Leader of the Free French Forces (1940)

 

"It is your last chance. If you do not stop Germany now, all is over."

- Foreign Minister Pierre-Etienne Flandin (1936, speaking to the British after Germany advanced into the Rhineland)

 

=========================

 

Pre-war Germany

 

"Hitler was the fate of Germany and this fate could not be stayed."

- Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch, Commander in Chief of the German Army 1938-41

 

"Those who want to live, let them fight, and those who do not want to fight in this world of eternal struggle do not deserve to live."

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator

 

"Mankind has grown strong in eternal struggles and it will only perish though eternal peace."

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator

 

"Struggle is the father of all things. It is not by the principles of humanity that man lives or is able to preserve himself above the animal world, but solely by means of the most brutal struggle."

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator

 

"My motto is, 'Destroy by all and any means. National Socialism will reshape the world."

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator

 

"Today we rule Germany, tomorrow, the world".

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator

 

"Demoralize the enemy from within by surprise, terror, sabotage, assassination. This is the war of the future."

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator

 

"The acquisition of new soil was to be obtained only in the east."

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator (Mein Kampf)

 

"Poland's existence is intolerable, incompatible with the essential conditions of Germany's life . Poland must go and will go... must be one of the fundamental drives of German policy... With the disappearance of Poland will fall one of the strongest pillars of the Versailles Peace, the hegemony of France."

- General von Seeckt (1922)

 

"I swear by God this sacred oath, that I will render unconditional obedience to Adolf Hitler, the Fuehrer of the German Reich and people, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, and will be ready as a brave soldier to risk my life at any time for this oath."

- German Armed Forces Oath of Loyality

 

"There will be a class of subject alien races; we need not hesitate to call them slaves."

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator

 

"A single blow must destroy the enemy... without regard of losses... a gigantic all-destroying blow."

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator

 

"The Berlin-Rome-Tokyo alliance is a world-wide spiritual program of the young peoples of the world. It is defeating the international alliance of convenience of Anglo-Saxon imperialist monopolists and unlimited Bolshevist internationalism. It is showing the world the way to a better future."

- Albrecht Fürst von Urach

 

"The aim of German policy was to make secure and to preserve the racial community and to enlarge it. It was therefore a question of space [Lebensraum]... the right to a greater living space than other peoples... Germany's future was therefore wholly conditional upon the solving of the need for space."

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator (1937)

 

What puffs and patters?

What clicks and clatters?

I know what, O, what fun!

It's a lovely Gatling-gun!

- Excerpt from picturebook for young children

 

"Close your hearts to pity! Act brutally! Eighty million people must obtain what is their right... The stronger man is right... Be harsh and remorseless! Be steeled against all signs of compassion!... Whoever has pondered over this world order knows that its meaning lies in the success of the best by means of force..."

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator (1939, speaking to his military chiefs about starting the war)

 

"Two worlds are in conflict... two philosophies of life... one of these two worlds must break asunder".

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator

 

"Do you want total war? If necessary, do you want a war more total and radical than anything that we can even imagine today?"

- Josef Goebbel, Minister of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda

 

"We have no intention of rebuilding Poland... Not to be a model state by German standards. Polish intelligentsia must be prevented from establishing itself as a governing class. Low standard of living must be conserved. Cheap slaves... Total disorganization must be created! The Reich will give the Governor General the means to carry out this devilish plan."

- Colonel-General Franz Halder

 

"Danzig is German, will always remain German, and will sooner or later become part of Germany... no fait accompli would be engineered in Danzig."

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator (1939)

 

"Strength lies not in defense but in attack."

- Adolf Hitler

Prelude to war

 

"The assertion that it is the intention of the German Reich to coerce the Austrian State is absurd"...

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator (January 30, 1934)

 

"The battle we are now approaching demands a colossal measure of production capacity. No limit on rearmament can be visualized. The only alternatives are victory or destruction... We live in a time when the final battle is in sight. We are ready on the threshold of mobilization and we are already at war. All that is lacking is the actual shooting."

- Reich Marshal Hermann Göring, Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe (1936)

 

"The forty-eight hours after the march into the Rhineland were the most nerve-racking in my life. If the French had then marched into the Rhineland, we would have had to withdraw with our tails between our legs, for the military resources at our disposal would have been wholly inadequate for even moderate resistance."

- Dr. Paul Schmidt, Hitler's interpreter

 

"Germany neither intends nor wishes to interfere in the internal affairs of Austria, to annex Austria, or to conclude an Anschluss."

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator (May 21, 1935)

 

"I have no further interest in the Czecho-Slovakian State, that is guaranteed. We want no Czechs"...

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator (September 26, 1938)

 

"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, Nazi Dictator (May 21, 1935)

 

"Germany is prepared to agree to any solemn pact of non-aggression, because she does not think of attacking but only acquiring security."

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator (1933)

 

"We have concluded a non-aggression pact with Denmark."

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator (before the conquest of Denmark)

 

"Germany never had any conflict with the Northern States and has none today."

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator (before the conquest of Norway)

 

"Ther German government has further given the assurance to Belgium and Holland that it is prepared to recognize and to guarantee the inviolability and neutrality of these territories."

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator (1937)

 

"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, Nazi Dictator (May 21, 1935)

 

"Germany has solemnly recognized and guaranteed France her frontiers as determined after te Saar plebiscite... We thereby finally renounced all claims to Alsace-Lorraine, a land for which we have fought two great wars."

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator (May 21, 1935)

 

"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, Nazi Dictator (October 14, 1933)

 

"First, we swear to yield to no force whatever in restoration of the honor of our people... Secondly, we pledge that now, more than ever, we shall strive for an understanding between the European peoples, especially for one with our Western neighbor nations... We have no territorial demands to make in Europe!... Germany will never break the peace!"

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator (after Nazi troops had marched in the Rhinelandin 1936)

 

"The Ruhr will not be subjected to a single bomb. if an enemy bomber reaches the Ruhr, my name is not Hermann Göring: you can call me Meier!"

- Reich Marshal Hermann Göring, Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe (1939)

 

"There are two possibilities for me: To win through with all my plans, or to fail. If I win, I shall be one of the greatest men in history. If I fail, I shall be condemned, despised and damned."

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator

War Years

 

"The spirit of the great men of our history must hearten us all. Fate demands from us no more than from the great men of German history. As long as I live I shall think only of the victory of my people. I shall shrink from nothing and shall annihilate everyone who is opposed to me... I want to annihilate the enemy!"

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator

 

"Where Napoleon failed, I shall succeed. I shall land on the shores of Britain".

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator

 

"Night gangsters! For this crime I will exact a thousand fold revenge!"

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator (after the RAF's first attack on Nazi shipyard at Bremen)

 

"Democracy has no convictions for which people would be willing to stake their lives."

- Dr. Ernst Hanftstaengl

 

"Mr. Churchill tells his people that England will win, but I tell you that victory will beling to Germany."

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator (after the first initial battles in the Battle of England)

 

"The issue in the east has already been settled. Smolensk is the last halt on the road to Moscow."

- German High Command

 

"I declare today, and I declare it without any reservation that the enemy in the East has been struck down and will never rise again... Behind our troops there already lies a territory twice the size of the German Reich when I came to power in 1933."

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator (a speech about the current condition of the Soviet Union on October 3, 1941)

 

"The Soviet Government would not fight against us... the Soviets would not repeat the Czar's mistake and bleed to death for Britain. They would, however, try to enrich themselves, possibly at the expense of the Baltic States or Poland, without engaging in military action themselves."

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator (1939)

 

"England, unlike in 1914, will not allow herself to blunder into a war lasting for years.... Such is the fate of rich countries.. .Not even England has the money nowadays to fight a world war. What should England fight for? You don't get yourself killed over an ally."

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator (1939)

 

"England should do well to realize that as a front-line soldier knew what war was and would utilize every means available. It was surely quite clear to everyone that the World War [i.e., 1914-1918] would not have been lost if had been Chancellor at the time."

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator (1939)

 

"If England wants to fight for a year, I shall fight for a year; if England wants to fight for two years, I shall fight two years... And if necessary, I will fight for ten years!"

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator (1939)

 

"My decision is unchangeable. I shall attack France and England at the most favorable and earliest moment. Breach of the neutrality of Belgium and Holland is of no importance. No one will question that when we have won. We shall not justify the breach of neutrality as idiotically as in 1914."

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator

 

"When Barbarossa commences, the world will hold its breath and make no comments!"

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator (1941) [NOTE: Barbarossa is the name of the operation for the invasion of the USSR]

 

"The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness."

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator (1941)

 

"The infantryman slithers in the mud, while many teams of horses are needed to drag each gun forward. All wheeled vehicles sink up to their axles in the slime. Even tractors can only move with great difficulty. A large portion of our heavy artillery was soon stuck fast... The strain tht all this caused our already exhausted troops can perhaps be imagined."

- General Blumentritt, chief of staff of the Fourth Army (about the situation in Russia at the winter of 1941)

 

"Ice was causing a lot of trouble since the calks for the tank tracks had not yet arrived. The cold made the telescopic sights useless. In order to start the engines of the tanks fires had to be lit beneath them. Fuel was freezing on occasions and the oil became viscous... Each regiment [of the 112th Infantry Division] had already lost some 500 men from frostbite. As a result of the cold the machine guns were no longer able to fire and our 37-mm. antitank guns had proved ineffective against the [Russian] T-34 tank."

- General Heinz Guderian (about the situation in Russia at the winter of 1941)

 

"With amazement and disappointment, we discovered in late October and early November that the beaten Russians seemed quite unaware that as a military force they had almost ceased to exist."

- General Blumentritt

 

"President Roosevelt has ordered his ships to shoot the moment they sight German ships. I have ordered German ships not to shoot when they sight American vessels, but to defend themselves when attacked. I will have any German officer court-martialed who fails to defend himself."

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator (1941)

 

"With the Ariete we have lost our oldest Italian comrades to whom, we must admit, we always asked more than they, considering their modest armament, could actually give us."

- Field Marshall Erwin Rommel

 

"I am asking of no German man more than I myself was ready throughout four years to do... I am from now on just the first soldier of the German Reich. I have once more put on that coat that was most sacred and dear to me. I will not take it off again until victory is secured, or I will not survive the outcome."

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator (1939)

 

"As far as the Navy is concerned, obviously it is in no way very adequately equipped for the great struggle with Great Britain... the submarine arm is still much too weak to have any decisive effect on the war. The surface forces, moreover, are so inferior in number and strength to those of the British Fleet that, even at full strength, they can do no more than show that they know how to die gallantly..."

- Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, Commander in Chief of the German Navy (1939)

 

"United within the country, economically prepared and militarily armed to the highest degree, we enter this most decisive year in German history... May the year 1940 bring the decision. It will be, whatever happens, our victor."

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator (Christmas, 1939)

 

"Under the deeply moving impression of the capitulation of France I congratulate you and the whole German Wehrmacht on the mighty victory granted by God, in the words of Emperor Wilhelm the Great in 1870: 'What a turn of events brought about by divine dispensation.' In all German hearts there echoes the Leuthen chorale sung by the victor of Leuthen, the soldiers of the Great King: 'Now thank we all our God!'"

- Kaiser Wilhelm II, 1940 (on a letter to Hitler after the conquest of France)

 

"Troops without ammunition or food… Effective command no longer possible… 18,000 wounded without any supplies or dressings or drugs… Further defense senseless. Collapse inevitable. Army requests immediate permission to surrender in order to save lives of remaining troops."

- Field Marshall Paulus, Commander of the 6th Army (a message to Hitler about the situation at Stalingrad)

 

"Surrender is forbidden. Sixth Army will hold their positions to the last man and the last round and by their heroic endurance will make an unforgettable contribution toward the establishment of a defensive front and the salvation of the Western world."

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator (replying to Paulus' request for surrender at Stalingrad)

 

"A thousand years hence Germans will speak of this battle [of Stalingrad] with reverence and awe, and will remember that in spite of everything Germany's ultimate victory was decided there… In years to come it will be said of the heroic battle on the Volga: When you come to Germany, say that you have seen us lying at Stalingrad, as our honor and our leaders ordained that we should, for the greater glory of Germany."

- Reich Marshall Hermann Göring, Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe (1942)

 

"They have surrendered there [stalingrad] there - formally and absolutely. Otherwise they would have closed ranks, formed a hedgehog, and shot themselves with their last bullet… The man [Paulus] should have shot himself just as the old commanders who threw themselves on their swords when they saw that the cause was lost… Even Varus gave his slave the order: 'Now kill me!'"

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator (1942)

 

"The enemy holds every trump card, covering all areas with long-range air patrols and using location methods against which we still have no warning... The enemy knows all our secrets and we know none of his."

- Grand Admiral Doenitz, Commander in Chief of the German Navy (1943)

 

"The work of a thousand years is nothing but rubble."

- Dr. Carl Goerdeler (1943)

 

"I beg you to accept my sincerest congratulations on your 60th birthday, I enclose with them my best wishes for your personal welfare as well as for a happy future for the peoples of the friendly Soviet Union."

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator (birthday greeting to Josef Stalin in 1939)

 

"We are fighting for our most valuable possession: our freedom. We are fighting for our land and our skies. We are fighting so that our children will not be slaves of foreign rulers. That is in no way an exaggeration or empty phrases."

- Dr. F (Die Wehrmacht 1939)

 

"England and France began the war in 1939 because they feared that in two or three years Germany would be militarily stronger and harder to defeat. The deepest roots of this war are in England's old claim to rule the world, and Europe in particular."

- Dr. F (Die Wehrmacht 1939)

 

". . . the basic principles of the military services are unchangeable. Courage and candor, obedience and comradeship, love of fatherland and loyalty to the State: these are ever the distinguishing characteristics of the soldier and sailor. Building character through intelligent training and education is always the first and greatest goal."

- Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, Commander in Chief of the German Navy

 

The Fall of the Reich

 

"We shall go down in history as the greatest statesmen of all time, or as the greatest criminals."

- Josef Goebbel, Minister of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda (before he committed suicide)

 

"When we depart, let the earth tremble!"

- Josef Goebbel, Minister of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda

 

"A thousand years will pass and the guilt of Germany will not be erased."

- Hans Frank, Governor General of Poland (before he was hanged for war crimes)

 

"It is my first task to save Germany from destruction by the advancing Bolshevik enemy. For this aim alone the military struggle continues. As far and as long as the achievement of this aim is impeded by the British and Americans, we shall be forced to carry on our defensive fight against them as well. Under such conditions, however, the Anglo-Americans will continue the war not for their own peoples but solely for the spreading of Bolshevism in Europe.

- Grand Admiral Doenitz (as President of the Reich after the death of Hitler, 1945)

 

"With this signature the German people and the German Armed Forces are, for better or worse, delivered into the hands of the victors… In this hour I can only express the hope that the victor will treat them with generosity."

- General Jodl (during the signing of the unconditional surrender, 1945)

 

"If the war is lost, the nation will also perish. This fate is inevitable. There is no necessity to take into consideration the basis which the people will need to continue a most primitive existence. On the contrary, it will be the weaker one and the future will belong solely to the stronger eastern nation [Russia]. Besides, those who will remain after the battle are only the inferior ones, for the good ones have been killed."

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator

 

"The Eastern front is like a house of cards. If the front is broken through at one point all the rest will collapse."

- General Heinz Guderian

 

"If necessary we'll fight on the Rhine. It doesn't make any difference. Under all circumstances we will continue this battle until, as Frederick the Great said, one of our damned enemies gets too tired to fight any more. We'll fight until we get a peace which secures the life of the German nation for the next fifty or a hundred years and which, above all does not besmirch our honor a second time, as happened in 1918… I live only for the purpose of leading this fight because I know that if there is not an iron will behind it, this battle cannot be won."

- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator (1944)

 

"If, in spite of enemy's air superiority, we succeed in getting a large part of our mobile force into action in the threatened coast defense sectors in the first hours, I am convinced that the enemy attack on the coast will collapse completely on its first day."

- Field Marshall Erwin Rommel (about the Allies' invasion at Normandy, 1944)

 

"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 Goebbel, Minister of Popular Enlightenment (April 26, 1945)

 

============================

 

Italy

 

"Peace is absurd: Fascism does not believe in it".

- Benito Mussolini, Fascist Dictator

 

"Blood alone moves the wheels of history."

- Benito Mussolini, Fascist Dictator

 

"Three cheers for war, noble and beautiful above all."

- Benito Mussolini, Fascist Dictator

 

"[The Fuehrer] is one of those lonely men of the ages on whom history is not tested, but who themselves are the makers of history."

- Benito Mussolini, Fascist Dictator (1937)

 

"These men are not made of the same stuff as the Francis Drakes and the other magnificent adventurers who created the Empire. These, after all, are the tired sons of a long line of rich men, and they will lose their Empire."

- Benito Mussolini, Fascist Dictator (speaking about the British in a private conversation after the Munich Agreement)

 

"The army is in a pitiful state. Even the defense of our frontier is insufficient. He has made thirty-two inspctions and is convinced that the French can go through it with great ease. The officers of the Italian Army are not qualified for the job, and our equipment is old and obsolete."

- Count Galeazzo Ciano, Foreign Minister (quoting Victor Emmanuel III, the King of Italy)

 

"War between the plutocratic, self-seeking conservative nations [was] inevitable. [but] Italy requires a period of preparation which may extend until the end of 1942... Only from 1943 onward will an effort by war have the greatest prospects of success. Italy needs a period of peace... For all these reasons Italy does not wish to hasten a European war, although she is convinced of the inevitability of such a war."

- Benito Mussolini, Fascist Dictator (1939)

 

"...war alone brings up to their highest tension all human energy and puts the stamp of nobility upon a people who have the courage to meet it. War is to man what maternity is to woman. I do not believe in peace, but I find it depressing and a negation of all human virtues of man".

- Benito Mussolini, Fascist Dictator

 

"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 Galeazzo Ciano, Foreign Minister (written in his diary on June 21, 1940)

 

"Fuehrer, we are on the march! Victorious Italian troops crossed the Greco-Albanian frontier at dawn today!"

- Benito Mussolini, Fascist Dictator (October 28, 1941)

 

"My dear Duce, it's no longer any good. Italy has gone to bits... The soldiers don't want to fight any more... At this moment you are the most hated man in Italy..."

- King Victor Emmanuel III (1943)

 

"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, Fascist Dictator (To his son in law on June 10th, 1941) [summitted by J. Stout]

 

"The war goes on, but against Germany. For this war there is one means - popular insurrection."

- Tancredi Galimberti, a member of the underground Action Party in Italy

 

"Blackshirts of the revolution, Italian men and women, at home and throughout the world, hear me... Italy has at last her Empire... a Fascist Empire."

- Benito Mussolini, Fascist Dictator (1935, after the conquest of Ethiopia)

 

================

Japan

 

"In the first six to twelve months of a war with the United States and Great Britain I will run wild and win victory upon victory. But then, if the war continues after that, I have no expectation of success."

- Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Commander in Chief of the Japanese Navy (1940)

 

"We have resolved to endure the unendurable and suffer what is insufferable."

- Emperor Hirohito

 

"In order to conquer the world, we must first conquer China."

-Baron Tanaka, Foreign Minister (Tanaka Memorial)

 

"To die for the Emperor is to live forever."

- Japanese Army Slogan

 

"When war comes between Japan and the United States, I shall not be content to merely occupying Guam, the Philipines, Hawaii, and San Francisco. I look forward to dictating the piece of United States in the White House at Washington."

- Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Commander in Chief of the Japanese Navy

 

"In blossom today, then scattered:

Life is so like a delicate flower.

How can one expect the fragrance

To last for ever?"

- Admiral Onishi Takijiro (a poem about Kamikaze pilots)

 

"If they (the young pilots) are on land, they would be bombed down, and if they are in the air, they would be shot down. That's sad...Too sad...To let the young men die beautifully, that's what Tokko is. To give beautiful death, that's called sympathy."

- Admiral Takijiro Onishi (Note: Tokko means suicidal attack in Japanese)

 

"You must let me do it."

- Captain Yukio Seki (when asked if he desired to participate in the first Kamikaze attack)

 

"To let this beautiful Japan keep growing, to be released from the wicked hands of the Americans and British, and to build a 'freed Asia' was our goal from the Gakuto Shutsujin year before last; yet nothing has changed."

- Second Lieutenant Shigeyuki Suzuki (member of a Kamikaze squadron)

 

"A military man can scarcely pride himself on having 'smitten a sleeping enemy'; it is more a matter of shame, simply, for the one smitten."

- Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Commander in Chief of the Japanese Navy (about Pearl Harbor, 1942)

 

"Tora, tora, tora!"

- Captain Fuchida Mitsuo (at the attack on Pearl Harbor, 1940) [Note: Tora means tiger in Japanese]

 

"All men are brothers, like the seas throughout the world; So why do winds and waves clash so fiercely everywhere?"

- Emperor Hirohito (1940)

 

"Blood for the Emperor! Marine, you die!"

- English slogan for the Japanese soldiers at Guadalcanal (1942)

 

"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 (December 7, 1940)

 

"The mindless rejoicing at home is really appalling; it makes me fear that the first blow against Tokyo will make them wilt at once...I only wish that [the Americans] had also had, say, three carriers at Hawaii..."

- Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Commander in Chief of the Japanese Navy (1942)

 

"The fruits of victory are tumbling into our mouths too quickly."

- Emperor Hirohito (April 29, 1942; his forty-first birthday)

 

=================

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

 

"Our aim is not to destroy all armed force in Germany, because any intelligent man will understand that this is as impossible in the case of Germany as in the case of Russia. It would be unreasonable on the part of the victor to do so. To destroy Hitler's army is possible and necessary."

-Josef Stalin, Soviet Dictator

 

"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 (September 21, 1938)

 

"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, Soviet Dictator (June 22, 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 (November 27, 1941)

 

"For the burned cities and villages; for the deaths of our children and our mothers; for the torture and humiliation of our people; I swear revenge upon the enemy… I swear that I would rather die in battle with the enemy then surrender myself my people and my country to the Fascist invaders. Blood for blood! Death for death!"

- Russian War Oath

 

"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, Soviet Dictator (July 3, 1941, speaking about the non-aggression pact between the USSR and Germany made on 1939)

 

"The friendship of the peoples of Germany and the Soviet Union, cemented by blood, has every reason to be lasting and firm."

- Josef Stalin, Soviet Dictator (Christmas greeting to Hitler, 1939)

 

"The situation of your troops is desperate. They are suffering from hunger, sickness and cold. The cruel winter has scarcely begun. Hard frosts, cold winds and blizzards still lie ahead. Your soldiers are unprovided with winter clothing and are living in appalling sanitary conditions. Your situation is hopeless, and any further resistance senseless."

- General Rokossovski (on a note to the 6th Army trapped in Stalingrad)

 

"All that the Great Lenin created we have lost forever!"

- Josef Stalin, Soviet Dictator (1941, after the Nazi armies' early victories in USSR) [summitted by J. Stout]

 

=======================

 

United States

 

"The atom bomb was no 'great decision.' . . . It was merely another powerful weapon in the arsenal of righteousness."

-President Harry Truman

 

"[Mariners] have written one of its most brilliant chapters. They have delivered the goods when and where needed in every theater of operations and across every ocean in the biggest, the most difficult and dangerous job ever undertaken. As time goes on, there will be greater public understanding of our merchant's fleet record during this war [World War II]."

- President Franklin D. Roosevelt

[summitted by Harold "BUD" Schmidt Sr., check out his page on the Merchant Marines in the links section]

 

"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."

- President Franklin D. Roosevelt

 

"History knows no greater display of courage than that shown by the people of the Soviet Union".

- Henry L. Stimson, Secretary of War

 

"We and our allies owe and acknowledge an ever-lasting debt of gratitude to the armies and people of the Soviet Union".

- Frank Knox, secretary of the Navy

 

"The gallantry and aggressive fighting spirit of the Russian soldiers command the American army's admiration".

- George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff, U.S. Army

 

"The scale and grandeur of the Russian effort mark it as the greatest military achievement in all history".

- General Douglas Macarthur, Supreme Allied Commander of South-West Pacific

 

"We are determined that before the sun sets on this terrible struggle our flag will be recognized throughout the world as a symbol of freedom on the one hand, of overwhelming power on the other."

- G.C. Marshall, Chief of Staff

 

"No compromise is possible and the victory of the democracies can only be complete with the utter defeat of the war machines of Germany and Japan."

- G.C. Marshall, Chief of Staff

 

"This is a fight between a free world and a slave world."

- Vice President Henry A. Wallace

 

"No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country."

- General George S. Patton, Jr

 

"Americans love to fight. All real Americans love the sting of battle."

-General George S. Patton, Jr.

 

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

-Albert Einstein

 

"On the European Front the most important development of the past year has been the crushing offensive of the Great Armies of Russia"...

- President Franklin D. Roosevelt (April 29, 1942)

 

"I shall return."

- General Douglas Macarthur, Supreme Allied Commander of South-West Pacific (speaking about the Philippines, when he was forced to retreat to Austrailia, 1942)

 

"I have returned."

- General Douglas Macarthur, Supreme Allied Commander of South-West Pacific (at the Philippines, 1944)

 

"Nuts"

- General MacAuliffe (when asked to surrender during the Battle of the Bulge, 1944)

 

"The American forces have suffered terrible losses. The losses are far more than what Eisenhower has admitted, and worse is ahead. Tunis is only a foretaste of what is waiting for us in Europe."

- Roane Waring, Commander of the American Legion (after the victory at North Africa)

 

"A bright light filled the plane. The first shock-wave hit us. We were eleven and a half miles slant range from the atomic explosion but the whole airplane cracked and crinkled from the blast... We turned back to look at Hiroshima. The city was hidden by that awful cloud... mushrooming, terrible and incredibly tall."

- Colonel Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the B-29 Enola Gay

 

History - in every century,

records an act that lives forevermore.

We'll recall - as in to line we fall,

the thing that happened on Hawaii's shore.

 

Let's REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR -

As we go to meet the foe -

Let's REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR

As we did the Alamo.

 

We will always remember -

how they died for liberty,

Let's REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR

and go on to victory.

- The "Remember Pearl Harbor" song

 

"United in this determination and with unshakable faith in the cause for which we fight, we will, with God's help, go forward to our greatest victory."

- General Dwight D. Eisenhower (1944)

 

"The Bomb will never go off, and I speak as an expert in explosives."

- Admiral William Daniel Leahy (advising President Truman on the U.S. atom bomb project, 1945)

 

"Don't fire until you can see the whites of their eyes."

- Major Devereux (the battle of Wake Island, 1941)

 

"It is the function of the Navy to carry the war to the enemy so that it will not be fought on U.S. soil."

- Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet

 

"We must not again underestimate the Japanese."

- Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet (after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, 1941)

 

"They (Women Marines) don't have a nickname, and they don't need one. They get their basic training in a Marine atmosphere, at a Marine Post. They inherit the traditions of the Marines. They are Marines."

- Lieutenant General Thomas Holcomb (1943)

 

"Goddam it, you'll never get the Purple Heart hiding in a foxhole! Follow me!"

- Captain Henry P. "Jim" Crowe (Guadalcanal, January 13, 1943)

 

"Casualties many; Percentage of dead not known; Combat efficiency; we are winning."

- Colonel David M. Shoup (Tarawa, November 21, 1943)

 

"The raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next 500 years."

- James Forrestal, Secretary of the Navy (February 23, 1945)

 

"Among the men who fought on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue."

- Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz (March 16, 1945)

 

"The battle of Iwo Island has been won. The United States Marines by their individual and collective courage have conquered a base which is as necessary to us in our continuing forward movement toward final victory as it was vital to the enemy in staving off ultimate defeat."

- Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet

 

"By their victory, the 3rd, 4th and 5th Marine Divisions and other units of the Fifth Amphibious Corps have made an accounting to their country which only history will be able to value fully. Among the American who served on Iwo Island, uncommon valor was a common virtue."

- Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet

 

"Kill Japs, kills Japs, kill more Japs!"

- Vice-Admiral "Bull" Halsey

 

"It is my earnest hope - indeed the hope of all mankind - that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past, a world found upon faith and understanding, a worl dedicated to the dignity of man and the fulfillment of his most cherished wish for freedom, tolerance and justice."

- General Douglas Macarthur, Supreme Allied Commander of South-West Pacific (1945)

 

"Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world, and that God will preserve it always."

- General Douglas Macarthur, Supreme Allied Commander of South-West Pacific (1945)

 

"No other island received as much preliminary pounding as did Iwo Jima."

- Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet

 

"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, December 5, 1940)

 

"Rangers, Lead The Way!"

- Colonel Francis W. Dawson (D-Day Invasion, 1944)

 

"When this war is over, the Japanese language will be spoken only in hell."

- Admiral Bill Halsey (December 7, 1941)

 

"The hand that held the dagger has struck it into the back of its neighbor."

- President Franklin D. Roosevelt (speaking of when Italy invaded her neighboring country, France) [summitted by Diane]

 

"All right, they're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us... they can't get away this time."

- Lieutenant General Lewis B."Chesty" Puller (when surrounded by 8 enemy divisions)

 

"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, Jr (addressing to his troops before Operation Overlord, June 5, 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!"

- Ge