“The storming of the Mannerheim Line was regarded as a model of operational and tactical art. Troops were taught to overcome the enemy's protracted defense by a gradual accumulation of forces and a patient "gnawing through" of breaches in the enemy's fortifications in accordance with all the rules of engineering science. Insufficient attention was paid to questions of co-operation among different branches and services of the armed forces under rapidly changing conditions. We had to retrain ourselves under enemy fire, paying a high price for the experience and knowledge without which we could not beat Hitler's army.”

— Sergei Biriuzov

Quoted in "The Winter War: The Soviet Attack on Finland" - Page 146 - by Eloise Engle, Eloise Paananen, Lauri Paananen - History - 1992

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Aug. 22, 2024. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The storming of the Mannerheim Line was regarded as a model of operational and tactical art. Troops were taught to over…" by Sergei Biriuzov?

Sergei Biriuzov5

Soviet military commander 1904–1964

Related quotes

“An enemy that engages Israeli forces along our border and learns it unhindered will eventually find a way to circumvent it. Understanding that the line of engagement will eventually be breached has taught the”

Brig. Gen. Eran Ortal (1971)

“The characteristics of the struggle, in which territory had to be given to the enemy and many years had to pass in order to achieve final victory, with fluctuations, ebb and flow, was that of a protracted war. During the entire struggle one could say that the front lines were where the enemy was. At a given moment, the enemy occupied almost the entire territory and the front was spread to wherever the enemy was. Later the lines of combat were delimited and a main front was established. But the enemy's rear guard constituted another front; it was a total war and the colonialists were never able to mobilize their forces with ease against the liberated zones. The slogan "dynamism, initiative, mobility, and quick decision in new situations" is in synthesis the guerrilla tactic. These few words expressed the tremendously difficult art of popular war.”

Ernesto Che Guevara (1928–1967) Argentine Marxist revolutionary

People's War, People's Army (1964)

“India and Israel are co-operating on security and intelligence matters because we have a common enemy: terrorism.”

Shimon Peres (1923–2016) Israeli politician, 8th prime minister and 9th president of Israel

Rahul Bedi, Israel and India draw Closer, 14 March 2002, http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/jir/jir020314_1_n.shtml https://web.archive.org/web/20080212170448/http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/jir/jir020314_1_n.shtml

“At the ceremony of signing the decoration I met Field-Marshal Montgomery for the first time. During the war I had closely followed the actions of British troops under his command. In 1940 the British Expeditionary Corps had sustained a disastrous setback at Dunkirk. Later, British troops under Montgomery's command had smashed the German corps under General Rommel at El Alamein. During the Normandy landing Montgomery had ably commanded the Allied forces and their advance to the banks of the Seine. Montgomery was above medium height, very agile, soldierly, trim and created an impression of a lively and intelligent man. He began to talk about the operations at El Alamein and at Stalingrad. In his view the two operations were of equal significance. I did not want to belittle the merits of the British troops, but still I had to explain to him that the El Alamein operation was carried out on an army scale, while at Stalingrad the operation engaged a group of fronts and it had a vast strategic importance- it resulted in the rout of a maor enemy force in the area of the Volga and Don rivers and later, in the North Caucasus. It was an operation that actually marked a radical turning-point in the war and ensured the retreat of the German forces from our country.”

Georgy Zhukov (1896–1974) Marshal of the Soviet Union

p. 661

“…to protect our position in the Norwegian and Arctic areas by threatening the flank of enemy operations against the northern Norwegian areas, and by attacking White Sea convoys…to tie down enemy forces in the Atlantic, so that they cannot operate in the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean or the Pacific.”

Erich Raeder (1876–1960) German naval officer and Großadmiral during World War II

Quoted in Peter Charles Smith, The Great Ships Pass: British Battleships at War (1977).

“The situation is perilous, uncertain, and extreme – but far from hopeless. The U. S. Armed Forces are a rock. This is the most competent and brilliantly led military in a tactical and operational sense that we have ever fielded.”

Barry McCaffrey (1942) United States Army general

As quoted in "The Bottom Line – Observations from Iraqi Freedom" http://www.jerrypournelle.com/reports/jerryp/Iraqreport.html (4 May 2006), Chaos Manor Special Reports