“The surrender of the Belgian Army compelled the British at the shortest notice to cover a flank to the sea more than 30 miles in length. Otherwise all would have been cut off, and all would have shared the fate to which King Leopold had condemned the finest Army his country had ever formed.”
Winston Churchill, We Shall Fight on the Beeches, 4 June 1940
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Leopold III of Belgium2
King of Belgians 1901–1983Related quotes
“The French covering army would have blown us to bits.”
Alfred Jodl (1890–1946) German general
This quote was made about World War II regarding Hitler's army and how the French army would have been able to easily defeat the German army yet the French chose not to attack the Germans.
“Like Aesop's fox, when he had lost his tail, would have all his fellow foxes cut off theirs.”
Robert Burton book The Anatomy of Melancholy
The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Democritus Junior to the Reader
Bonar Law (1858–1923) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Speech in Dublin (28 November, 1913).
Zail Singh (1916–1994) Indian politician and former President of India
Giani Zail Singh's daughter [Dr. Gurdeep Kaur] says PM, govt ignored his pleas for help
Winston S. Churchill book The Second World War
Speech in the House of Commons, August 2, 1944.
The Second World War (1939–1945)
Source: [Churchill, Winston, The Dawn of Liberation, 1945, Rosetta Books, 2013, 9780795329494]
Bruce Palmer Jr. (1913–2000) United States Army Chief of Staff
Source: The 25-Year War: America's Military Role in Vietnam (1984), p. 209
David Dixon Porter (1813–1891) United States Navy admiral
Source: 1880s, Incidents and Anecdotes of the Civil War (1885), p. 296
Context: It was not a model style for the President of the United States to enter the capital of a conquered country, yet there was a moral in it all which had more effect than if he had come surrounded with great armies and heralded by the booming of cannon. He came, armed with the majesty of the law, to put his seal to the act which had been established by the bayonets of the Union soldiers the establishment of peace and goodwill between the North and the South, and liberty to all mankind who dwell upon our shores.
James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce (1838–1922) British academic, jurist, historian and Liberal politician
Speech to the Women's National Liberal Association Conference, Memorial Hall, London (12 June 1901), quoted in The Times (13 June 1901), p. 12.
1900s