Posted by Peter Ceresole on February 07, 2009 at 16:52:11 user PeterC.
In Reply to: Re: John's Statement on War posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on February 07, 2009 at 15:09:17:
Some of us (see further down) have been trying to identify the "well known book".
Yes. It sounds extremely familiar, not so much from naval warfare but from warfare in general; people like Liddell Hart in 'the Strategy of Indirect Approach', which is what that quote made me think of straight away. I suppose it's a pair with 'No plan survives contact with the enemy' (which does have a firm attribution to von Moltke).
At Sandhurst and West Point it's the kind of phrase you hear said several times a day. But I couldn't find a direct reference.