Erwin Rommel

"Be an example to your men in your duty and in private life. Never spare yourself, and let the troops see that you don't, in your endurance of fatigue and privation. Always be tactful and well-mannered…"

"But courage which goes against military expediency is stupidity, or, if it is insisted upon by a commander, irresponsibility."

"The German soldier has astonished the world; the Italian Bersagliere has astonished the German soldier."

"The art of concentrating strength at one point, forcing a breakthrough, rolling up and securing the flanks on either side, and then penetrating like lightning, before the enemy has time to react, deep…"

"When a commander has won a decisive victory - and Wavell's victory over the Italians was devastating - it is generally wrong for him to be satisfied with too narrow a strategic aim. For that is the ti…"

"One must not judge everyone in the world by his qualities as a soldier: otherwise we should have no civilization."

"The Italian command was, for the most part, not equal to the task of carrying on war in the desert, where the requirement was lightning decision followed by immediate action. The training of the Itali…"

"Anyone who has to fight, even with the most modern weapons, against an enemy in complete command of the air, fights like a savage against modern European troops, under the same handicaps and with the …"