Gunner Quotes
Renown awaits the commander who first restores
Artillery to its prime importance on the battlefield.
- Winston Churchill
"Artillery adds dignity, to what would
otherwise be an ugly brawl"
- Frederick the Great, king of Germany, 1740 to 1786
A Toast to the Guns By them we live,
For them we would die. Whatever the Mission,
We'll give it a try. We'll serve them with Honor
For they are the ones; That make us 'Gunners',
So here's to the Guns: TO THE GUNS!!
- Unknown
"You can't describe the moral lift,
when in the fight your spirits weary
hears above the hostile fire,
Your own Artillery.
Shells score the air like wavy hair
from a forward battery.
As regimental cannon crack
While from positions further back,
in bitter sweet song overhead
crashing discordantly
Division's pounding joins the attack;
Mother like she belches shell;
Glorious it flies, and well,
As, with a hissing screaming squall,
A roaring furnace, giving all,
she sears a path for the infantry...."
- AleksanderTvardovskiy
From the poem "VasilyTyorkin" 1943
"St Barbara of the Artillery Corp, Be at the
bursting of the doors of doom, and in the dark deliver us, Amen."
- Irish field Artillery poem
Cannon to the right of them, Cannon to the left of them,
Cannon in front of them, Volley'ed and thundered.
- The Charge of the Light Brigade
Ultima ratio regum. (The final argument of kings)
- Inscription on french cannons, on order of Louis XIV
"The Artillery was my strongest tool. Often it was my only reserve ....
I repeatedly said it was more a matter of the Infantry
supporting the Artillery than the Artillery supporting
the Infantry.... I wish I knew the countless times that
positions were taken or held due solely to TOT's ...."
- Major General R. 0. Barton
Commanding US 4th Infantry Division World War II
(Reminiscing with his division Artillery Commander) CANNON,
(n). An instrument employed in the rectification of national boundaries.
- Ambrose Bierce
The first shot is for the Devil, the second for God,
and only the third for the King."
Nothing is more destructive than
the charge of Artillery on a crowd.
The best generals are those
who have served in the Artillery.
God fights on the side with the best Artillery.
With Artillery, War is made.
Leave the Artillerymen alone,
they are an obstinate lot. . .
- Napoleon Bonaparte
The thanks of the Infantry, in my opinion, must be
treasured more by every Artilleryman than all decorations and citations."
- lonel Georg Bruchmuller
"If you don't have enough Artillery, quit."
- General Richard Cavasos
The speed, accuracy and devastating power of American Artillery
won confidence and admiration from the troops it supported and
inspired fear and respect in their enemy.
- Gen Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Do not forget your dogs of war, your big guns,
which are the most-to- be respected arguments of the rights of kings."
- Frederick the Great
Artillery conquers and infantry occupies.
- J.F.C. Fuller
"Guns will make us powerful, butter will only make us fat."
- Hermann Goering
"Too much praise cannot be bestowed on
those who managed my Artillery"
- General Andrew Jackson
"The Guns, Thank God, The Guns. . ."
- Rudyard Kipling
No one accuses the gunner of maudlin affection
for anything except his beasts and his weapons.
He serves as least three jealous gods--his horse and
all its sadlery and harness; his gun, whose least detail of
efficiency is more important than men's lives; and,
when these have been attended to,
the never-ending mystery of his art commands him.
- Rudyard Kipling
In many situations that seemed desperate,
the Artillery has been a most vital factor
- Gen Douglas MacArthur
"Artillerymen have a love for their guns
which is perhaps stronger than the feeling
of any soldier for his weapon or any part of his equipment."
- Brigadier General S. L. A. Marshall
The harder the fighting and the longer the war,
the more the infantry, and
in fact all the arms, lean on the gunners.
- Field Marshal Montgomery
The World War demonstrated the importance of Field Artillery.
The majority of casualties were inflicted by the arm.
- Gen John J. Pershing
"Where a goat can go, a man can go,
where a man can go, he can drag a gun"
- Col William Phillips 1777
I do not have to tell you who won the war.
You know, the Artillery did.
- Gen George S. Patton
"Our Artillery . . . The Germans
feared it almost more than anything we had."
- Ernie Pyle "Brave Men", 1944
"If, after the battle is over,
your Infantry don't like you,
you are a poor Artilleryman."
- Captain Henry Reilly
A battery of field Artillery is worth a thousand muskets.
- General William Tecumseh Sherman
"There is no other arm of the service
whose efficiency is so directly dependent
upon its officers as is the field Artillery."
- Major General William J. Snow
Artillery is the god of war.
- Stalin
The work for giants...to serve well the guns!
- Walt Whitman
