Military History Clichés: Here's The Most Overused Ones Did they include one you know? Feel free to add one here. I'll go with, "WWI generals didn't care about their men."
1) "The Tiger Tank was the greatest tank of WW2." 2) "D-Day won the war in the west." 3) "The Japanese were an inferior opponent to the U.S" 4) "The French military was full of unmotivated cowards." 5) "Hitler's decisions were the reason the Germans lost" 6) "The Italians were an inadequate fighting force with obsolete tactics and weaponry." 7) "The German detour in the Balkans ended their hopes of defeating the Soviets." These are all WW2 centered, but they are all ones I've heard quite a bit. They all have elements of truth to them, but there is a much bigger picture and a story behind each one of these being not fully true.
I like Tom Ricks, but occasionally he's like me, a contrarian and iconoclast for the sake of contrarianism/iconoclasm. And some corollaries to some clichés are just as true...for example. MH 6b. Good strategy won’t fix bad tactics. (But it may prolong the fighting and so give you some time in which to fix your tactics.) MH 7b. Plains/marsh/desert/urban tribes are always fiercely independent. [Maybe it has more to do with tribalism than terrain?] Anyway, it is a fine line between cliché and truism.
How about: 1. Never reinforce failure. 2. God is on the side of the biggest battalions. 3. Americans are natural riflemen. 4. Germans make better soldiers. 5. German weapons are over-engineered. 6. The battle of Midway turned the tide of the war in the Pacific.
How about the Sherman tank, and how: Yes, that's a direct barb at the farcical book entitled "For Want of a Gun" by Christian DeJohn. On the plus side it is good for laughs, and serves as fine toilet paper due to the heavyweight non-glossy paper used throughout.
Some pretty good ones that I've seen re-worded, I've never heard 2 or 3 though, a little strange to be honest. Now that is a definite favorite among amateur "historians" and Hollywood correspondents, the Sherman was one of the Main reasons the U.S and other allied nations had a chance at winning some pretty major campaigns.
I think the 'God' comment goes back to Voltaire (Napoleonic era) so is definitely long in the tooth. Never heard the 'Americans' comment in relation to WWII and suspect that one goes back as well. I seem to recall that those despicable Lobster Backs thought Colonial riflemen were devils for accurately dropping redcoats beyond the range of the Brown Bess.
belasar is right about the "God is on the side..." cliché, but it does have relevance to WW2. The "American / riflemen" one that was going around the media in early WW2, inspired by Sgt. York, '03 Springfields, etc. Back in WW1 there might have been some justification for it since many of our soldiers came from rural/hunting backgrounds. Of course they ignored the fact that the NRA was founded because of the dismal shooting of the Union Army in our Civil War.
"I know who you are, I know what you can do." (From "Fury".) Superman soldiers, never enough to go around.
First attributed to Marshal Turenne, but second-hand. Trevor was going to write a myths of military history book, but was still working on it when he died. Myths and cliches are similar I suppose. I worked on the "Grant the Butcher" chapter, which is definitely both a cliche and a myth.
I just remembered one from WW2: "German soldiers are so regimented that they can't do anything but blindly obey orders."
some other threads on a similar theme - be aware www.arrse.co/uk = NSFW Best Military Clichés Military Universal Truths Quotes for use in the field
