William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim Quotes

“Armies do not win wars by means of a few bodies of super-soldiers but by the average quality of their standard units. Anything, whatever short cuts to victory it may promise, which thus weakens the army spirit, is dangerous. Commanders who have used these special forces have found, as we did in Burma, that they have another grave disadvantage- they can be employed actively for only restricted periods. Then they demand to be taken out of the battle to recuperate, while normal formations are expected to have no such limitations to their employment. In Burma, the time spent in action with the enemy by special forces was only a fraction of that endured by the normal divisions, and it must be remembered that risk is danger multiplied by time.”

William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim

Source: Defeat Into Victory (1961), p. 456

“The more modern war becomes, the more essential appear the basic qualities that from the beginning of history have distinguished armies from the mobs. The first of these is discipline.”

William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim

Source: Defeat Into Victory (1961), p. 451

“The strength of the Japanese Army lay, not in its higher leadership which once its career of success had been checked became confused, nor in its special aptitude for jungle warfare, but in the spirit of the individual Japanese soldier. He fought and marched till he died. If five hundred Japanese were ordered to hold a position, we had to kill four hundred and ninety-five before it was ours- and then the last five had killed themselves. It was this combination of obedience and ferocity that made the Japanese Army, whatever its condition, so formidable, and which would make any army formidable. It would make a European army invincible.”

William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim

Source: Defeat Into Victory (1961), p. 447

“Generals who are terribly busy all day and half the night, who fuss round, posting platoons, and writing march tables, wear out not only their subordinates but themselves. Nor have they, when the real emergency comes, the reserve of vigor that will enable them, for days if necessary, to do with little rest or sleep.”

William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim

Source: Defeat Into Victory (1961), p. 184

“Private armies, and for that matter private air forces- are expensive, wasteful, and unnecessary.”

William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim

Source: Defeat Into Victory (1961), p. 457

“...any Japanese officer wishing to commit suicide would be given every facility.”

William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim

Source: Defeat Into Victory (1961), p. 442