Artillery quotes and quotations
Ultima Ration Regum – The King of Battle
Enjoy the Artillery Quotes
“Artillerymen believe the world consist of two types of people; other Artillerymen and targets.”
– Unknown
“There is NO job in the Field Artillery for the weak, the timid or the indecisive.”
– Unknown
“Artillery adds dignity, to what would otherwise be an ugly brawl”
– Frederick the Great, king of Germany, 1740 to 1786
“Gunners will always fight together, drink together, laugh together, and morn together.”
– Unknown
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 Artillerymen,
So here’s to the Guns:
TO THE GUNS!!
– Unknown artillery toast
“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….”
– Aleksandr Tvardovskiy, from the poem “Vasily Tyorkin” 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 thanks of the infantry, in my opinion, must be treasured more by every artilleryman than all decorations and citations. ”
– Colonel Georg Bruchmuller,
Imperial German Army Artillery Officer and Father of Modern Fire Support
“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 after the Battle of New Orleans, 1815
“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 first shot is for the Devil, the second for God, and only the third for the King.”
– Napoleon Bonaparte
Nothing is more destructive than the charge of artillery on a crowd.
– Napoleon Bonaparte
The best generals are those who have served in the artillery.
– Napoleon Bonaparte
God fights on the side with the best artillery.
– Napoleon Bonaparte
With Artillery, War is made.
– Napoleon Bonaparte
“Leave the Artillerymen alone, they are an obstinate lot. . .”
– Napoleon Bonaparte
I do not have to tell you who won the war. You know, the artillery did.
– Gen George S. Patton
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
“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 The Field Artillery Journal, September-October 1940
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
Letter in “The Shrapnel-1924”
The Field Artillery School 1 March 1924
Artillery is the god of war.
– Stalin
The work for giants…to serve well the guns!
– Walt Whitman
Renown awaits the commander who first restores artillery to its prime importance on the battlefield.
– Winston Churchill
I can’t guarantee that these artillery quotations are correct or true, but I have tried to verify as many of the artillery related quotes as possible. Please contact me if you find any errors in artillery quotes, have some additional information about them or if you know any artillery quotations that’s not listed here.
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