British army Quote by Joseph E. Persico

These, in the day when heaven was falling, The hour when earth's foundations fled, Followed their mercenary calling And took their wages and are…

— A. E. Housman

“What might have developed into it great controversy in England over the duty to retreat failed to occur in the absence of conditions like…

— Richard Maxwell Brown

Sometimes, in the trenches, you get the sense of something, ancient. One trench we held, it had skulls in the side, embedded, like mushrooms.…

— Pat Barker

“Reflections of the battlements shimmered in the deep green moat, casting an image of enduring strength, an image that defied the very siege of…

— Karen Azinger

“At the beginning of a campaign it is important to consider whether or not to move forward; but when one has taken the offensive…

— Napoleon Bonaparte

No retreat. No retreat. They must conquer or die who've no retreat.

— John Gay

My command, less than ten thousand, had found the battle on the Plank road in retreat, little less than a panic. In a few…

— James Longstreet

“In the trenches between the burial mounds hundreds of dead soldiers sat side by side with their heads against the torn earth, as if…

— J G Ballard

“Sixty-five years ago [written 2009], in a brief lull between storms in a remarkably stormy June, even by the standards of Channel weather, the…

— G.M.W. Wemyss

“The end of the war was like the beginning, with the army marching down the open road under the spring sky, seeing a far…

— Bruce Catton

There is no shame in strategic retreat if it lets you remain strong enough to go after the enemy later.

— Jane Lindskold

In spite of certain distressing but isolated occurrences in the last battle, I certainly hoped that the Army would be in a position to…

— Paul von Hindenburg