“They’re not shooting at us, they’re not shooting at us,” one infantry commander insisted, even as French artillery plastered his battalion.” — Rick Atkinson Copy Share Image
That was a pretty fine Army that we had in 1965. By 1973, it was in tatters. It was a disgrace to… — Rick Atkinson Army Copy Share Image
“On October 14, Patton sent identical letters to all his senior commanders: “If you don’t succeed, I don’t want to see you… — Rick Atkinson Failure Copy Share Image
“Few commanders in this war could function without arriving at a sensibility in which thousands of dead and wounded men could be… — Rick Atkinson War Copy Share Image
“High-prowed fishing smacks bobbed at their moorings along the riverbank, nets draped over the gunwales to dry. Stork nests, intricately thatched and… — Rick Atkinson Copy Share Image
“As a battalion commander in France, it was said, he had once pulled a pistol on a hesitant junior officer and shot… — Rick Atkinson Copy Share Image
“Ten miles to the southeast the war went on, badly, for Drake and his men. With nearly a thousand troops already dug… — Rick Atkinson War Copy Share Image
Hitler had a police state of the first order. And those who showed any sign of being weak-kneed faced prison or often… — Rick Atkinson Any Copy Share Image
“In the fall of 1969, a hundred Vassar students arrived from Poughkeepsie to preach peace and distribute daisies. They left a few… — Rick Atkinson Peace Copy Share Image
“trained and ready to fight. “I now have a really intensive faith in the First Division. They are 1,000 percent better than… — Rick Atkinson Copy Share Image
“As required by the unwritten rules of military calamity, the initial attack went well.” — Rick Atkinson Copy Share Image
“Sergeant Samuel Allen, Jr., a former college student who had led his own swing band in the palmy days of peace, tried… — Rick Atkinson College student Copy Share Image
“An enterprising shortwave radio operator managed to pick up the Army–Notre Dame football game and broadcast it to the 16th Infantry Regiment… — Rick Atkinson Ball game Copy Share Image
The people who write official histories for the Army believe that a generation needs to pass before you can tackle the official… — Rick Atkinson About Copy Share Image
It's my belief that by demonizing Saddam, by raising the stakes in this war to the point where we're talking about a… — Rick Atkinson About Copy Share Image
“Terry Allen and a larger portion of his 1st Division descended on Oran from the sandstone hills above St. Cloud, a key… — Rick Atkinson Copy Share Image
Almost everything about American society is affected by World War II: our feelings about race; our feelings about gender and the empowerment… — Rick Atkinson About Copy Share Image
I conduct very few interviews with veterans. The contemporaneous, or near-contemporaneous, record for WWII is so spectacularly deep that latter-day recollections are… — Rick Atkinson Account Copy Share Image
