A Bridge Too Far Quotes

Charge 7

Master Gunner
Brigadier General Gavin: What's the best way to take a bridge?
Maj. Julian Cook: Both ends at once.
Brigadier General Gavin: I'm sending two companies across the river by boat. I need a man with very special qualities to lead.
Maj. Julian Cook: Go on, sir.
Brigadier General Gavin: He's got to be tough enough to do it and he's got to be experienced enough to do it. Plus one more thing. He's got to be dumb enough to do it... Start getting ready.
Junior Officer: what was all that about, Major?
Maj. Julian Cook: Well someone's come up with a real nightmare. Real nightmare.


Lt. Colonel J.O.E. Vandeleur: Have you ever been liberated?
Col. Robert Stout: I was divorced twice. Does that count?
Lt. Colonel J.O.E. Vandeleur: Yes.


Col. Robert Stout: Could you get a message down to XXXth Corps on that dingus?
Radio Operator: Yes, sir. Uh, we just got word from the 82nd up ahead. They captured the Graves bridge completely intact!
Col. Robert Stout: Aw, that's terrrific. Except XXXth Corps ain't about to reach the godam intact Graves bridge until the godam Son bridge gets fixed. Tell our British cousins to hustle up some Bailey stuff.
Radio Operator: Yes, sir.
Col. Robert Stout: I'll meet 'em in Eindoven when they get there. Tell those schmucks to do this right and have their Bailey stuff at the front of their column. Got that?
Radio Operator: Yes, sir.
Col. Robert Stout: And be sure to say please.
Radio Operator: Yes, sir.

[Stout and Vanderleur are discussing how to get the Bailey bridge through town]
Lt. Colonel J.O.E. Vandeleur: By Bailey crap I suppose you are referring to that marvel of British engineering that is the envy of the civilized world. Well, yes, we have it but
[looks at the crowd of Dutch civilians]
Lt. Colonel J.O.E. Vandeleur: I don't know how you're going to get it through this crowd.
Col. Robert Stout: No sweat. I got a back way staked out that will avoid all this. American ingenuity.
Col. Joe. Vanderleur: Really?
Col. Robert Stout: Actually, I was born in Yugoslavia, but what the hell.


Lt. General Frederick "Boy" Browning: Hello, Roy. How are you?
Maj. General Roy Urqhart: I'm not sure I'll know for a while. But I'm sorry about how it turned out.
Lt. General Frederick "Boy" Browning: You did all you could.
Maj. General Roy Urqhart: Yes, but did everyone else?
Lt. General Frederick "Boy" Browning: They've got a bed for you upstairs if you want it.
Maj. General Roy Urqhart: I took ten thousand men into Arnhem. I've come out with less than two. I don't feel much like sleeping.


Brig. General James Gavin: So that's it. We're pulling them out. It was Nijmegen.
Lt. Colonel J.O.E. Vandeleur: It was the single road getting to Nijmegen.
Lt. General Horrocks: No, it was after Nijmegen.
Lt. General Frederick "Boy" Browning: And the fog, in England.
Maj. General Stanislaw Sosabowski: Doesn't matter what it was. When one man says to another, "I know what let's do today, let's play the war game."... everybody dies.
 

General Roy Urquhart
"Hancock. I've got lunatics laughing at me from the woods. My original plan has been scuppered now that the jeeps haven't arrived. My communications are completely broken down. Do you really believe any of that can be helped by a cup of tea?"
:horsie:​
 
Hancock 'Well it couldn't hurt, Sir.' Absolutely right nothing better than a good cuppa - even Urquhart had to admit that
 
Back
Top