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Q: World War I historical sayings ( Answered,   2 Comments )
Question  
Subject: World War I historical sayings
Category: Miscellaneous
Asked by: stocktonbill-ga
List Price: $5.00
Posted: 06 Dec 2002 19:38 PST
Expires: 05 Jan 2003 19:38 PST
Question ID: 120666
What World War I French soldier said "L'avance, l'avance, toujours l'avance!"
Answer  
Subject: The likely quotation
Answered By: omnivorous-ga on 07 Dec 2002 11:39 PST
 
Stocktonbill --

Sometimes a researcher has to sleep on the question before finding a
path to a solution.  I'd told Justaskscott that I was going to check
Gen. George S. Patton's biography because the quotation represented
his philosophy of war.

So I checked Carlo d'Este's "A Genius for War," Harper-Collins, 1995
and found that Patton kept notecards on his readings, coding things
with an "F" when he thought that something was related to future wars
and "Q" when he found something worth quoting.

As d'Este says, the cornerstone of his generalship was in this note on
Frederick the Great:
"Ride the enemy to death.  L'Audace -- L'Audace -- Tout jour
l'Audace."

The Prussian king was born in 1712 and was more fluent in French than
German.  His French portion of the quotation could be translated as
"Boldness -- Boldness -- Each day boldness."

There are excellent websites with his biography including:
M. Munger
"Frederick the Great" (2002)
http://www.cyberboss.net/history/frederickthegreat.html

Also several pages on his battles and detailed orders to both officers
and troops:
Ed Allen
"Federick the Great's Military Instructions" (Jan. 27, 1997)
http://tetrad.stanford.edu/Frederick.html
http://tetrad.stanford.edu/hm/FredMaps.html

Google search strategy:
"Frederick the Great" + "l'audace"

Often researchers find that quotations they find are a bit different
than what is being sought.  I hope that we've met you requirements
here.

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA
Comments  
Subject: Re: World War I historical sayings
From: justaskscott-ga on 06 Dec 2002 21:12 PST
 
I have not found this quotation (from any time period) after looking
on several search engines.  The closest I have found is an order
during World War I to "advance, advance at any cost" (my translation),
but the phrase is not put in quotation marks, which may mean that it
was not said that way; moreover, it is not attributed to a particular
soldier.  If you are interested in that phrase, I could post it as an
answer, but I suppose that you would want to see if another Researcher
can find the phrase you want first.
Subject: Re: World War I historical sayings
From: omnivorous-ga on 06 Dec 2002 22:01 PST
 
Stocktonbill --

The saying appears associated with several French and English
historical figures.  It is often thought to be associated with
Marechal Foch, a French WWI general, because of his strong attitudes
towards offense (and another quotation).

The more appropriate English translation of the French is "Attack,
attack, always attack."

Best regards,

Omivorous-GA

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