“The British have been a free people and are still a comparatively free people; and though we are not, thank Heaven, a military nation, this tradition of freedom gives to our junior leaders in war a priceless gift of initiative. So long as this initiative is not cramped by too many regulations, by too much formalism, we shall, I trust, continue to win our battles – sometimes in spite of our higher commanders.”

III – The Soldier and the Statesman.
"Generals and Generalship" (1939)

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Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell7

senior officer of the British Army 1883–1950

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Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell7

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