an army marches on its stomach
An ARMY marches on its stomach Quick reference
Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (6 ed.)
... ARMY marches on its stomach An army can only operate effectively if it is well supplied with food. The saying has been attributed to both Napoleon and Frederick the Great. This figurative use of ( on one’s ) stomach is unusual in English. □ 1904 Windsor Magazine Jan. 268 ‘An army marches on its stomach.’ ‘ C’est la soupe qui fait le soldat .’ These Napoleonic aphorisms…have been increasingly appreciated by our War Office. 1977 j. b. hilton Dead‐Nettle x. ‘They say an army marches on its stomach,’ Gilbert Slack began to say. ‘You mean that Frank...
an army marches on its stomach Quick reference
The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (2 ed.)
... army marches on its stomach this saying, which attests to the importance of forces being well-provisioned, has been attributed to both Napoleon and Frederick the Great . It is recorded in English from the early 20th...
an army marches on its stomach
march
army Quick reference
The Oxford Dictionary of Idioms (4 ed.)
... army an army marches on its stomach : see stomach . you and whose army? used to express disbelief in someone’s ability to carry out a threat. informal ...
Stomach Reference library
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable (19 ed.)
... Used figuratively of inclination, as: ‘He had little stomach for the enterprise.’ Stomach an insult, To To swallow it or put up with it. Army marches on its stomach, An See under army . Butterflies in one’s stomach, To have See under butterfly . Strong stomach, A See under strong...
stomach Quick reference
The Oxford Dictionary of Idioms (4 ed.)
... stomach an army marches on its stomach soldiers or workers can only fight or function effectively if they have been well 🅘 The saying has been attributed to both Frederick the Great and Napoleon I. It is a version of the French phrase c’est la soupe qui fait le soldat . ...
Army Reference library
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable (19 ed.)
... See also regimental and divisional nicknames . Army marches on its stomach, An The troops need to be well provisioned if they are to be fighting fit. The saying has been attributed to Napoleon and Frederick the Great, among others. Barmy army See under barmy . Church Army See under church . Dad’s Army See under dad . Forgotten Army See under forget . Fred Karno’s army See karno . New Model Army See under new . Popski’s Private Army See under popski . Red Army See under red . Sally Army See salvation army . Salvation Army See under ...
march Quick reference
The Oxford Dictionary of Idioms (4 ed.)
... march an army marches on its stomach : see stomach . march to the beat of ) a different tune ( or drum or drummer ) consciously...
commissariat Reference library
The Oxford Companion to Military History
...This said, the functions for which a commissariat is responsible are vital. The saying ‘an army marches on its stomach’ is attributed to Napoleon on St Helena—perhaps after having had time to consider how lack of attention to this very fact lost him armies in Spain and Russia. In Elizabethan times, the stomach was considered the fount of courage, as the phrase ‘not to have the stomach’ for some challenge lives on to remind us. The importance of food supplies to an army on campaign cannot be overestimated, and failure by the commissariat can imperil operations...
military rationing Reference library
Sam Chapple-Sokol
The Oxford Companion to Cheese
...Napoleon famously quipped that “an army marches on its stomach,” and it is no less true now than it was then. According to unclassified American military documents, cheese “has been a highly popular and coveted item by the US Army and Marine Corps Warfighters for use as a spread on crackers and bread and as a seasoning to many entrees” ( Nattress et al., 2009 , p. 3) Cheese also appears in the military rations of France, the United Kingdom, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Greece, and many more—a testament to its importance on the battlefields of the world. See also...
Frunze, Cdr Mikhail Vasilevich (1885–1925) Reference library
The Oxford Companion to Military History
...in WW II. In the documents prepared by the RKKA staff in 1925 under Frunze's direction, mobilization was viewed as the conversion not only of the army and navy, but of the whole of society to a wartime footing. Frunze's energy and genius made him many enemies, in particular Trotsky and his supporters. By now he was suffering from a stomach ulcer and his heart was too weak for him to undergo anaesthetic for an operation. Nevertheless, he was ordered to undergo surgery in what the official enquiry subsequently decided was a ‘medical murder’. Christopher...
Sunzi Reference library
John G. BLAIR and Jerusha McCORMACK
Berkshire Encyclopedia of China
...of 100,000 campfires; on the second day 50,000, and on the third day only 30,000. Pang Juan, eager for victory, concluded that the Qi army had been seriously weakened by mass desertions. So he left the bulk of his infantry behind and set out in pursuit with some lightly equipped troops. He covered two days’ worth of ground in a single day’s march. Sun Bin had calculated that Pang Juan would reach Maling at dusk. Sun Bin set an ambush there and waited. As planned, the Wei troops arrived exhausted from their forced march, and Sun Bin’s army demolished them. ...
The Cromwellian Army’s Political Role During the Interregnum Reference library
Henry Reece
Oxford Encyclopedia of the Military in Politics
...had started its sitting in January was focused almost exclusively on constitutional issues. By the end of March it had not once debated the pressing issue of pay for the army and the navy. Even one of Richard Cromwell’s closest civilian advisers saw it as “a miracle of mercy” that the army was peaceful given its lack of pay, the focus of the debates in parliament, and attempts by republican opponents of the regime to disaffect officers ( Reece, 2013 , p. 194). On April 2, 1659 , Charles Fleetwood, now the senior officer in the English army, summoned a...
Dumas, Thomas-Alexandre (1762–1806) Reference library
Eric Martone and Tom Reiss
Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro–Latin American Biography
...his wife, Marie-Louise Labouret, an innkeeper’s daughter, while riding in to rescue her town from brigands. As part of the Army of the North, Dumas was promoted to corporal for his daring feats and strength. He was present at the Champ-de-Mars Massacre of 1791 ; he later claimed that his actions saved many lives. When a German-Austrian army marched on Paris in 1792 to reimpose the monarchy, Dumas made a name for himself by capturing a large enemy patrol without firing a shot. The Revolution cleared a path for Dumas to rise on his merits by driving...
Gettysburg, Battle of (1863) Reference library
The Oxford Companion to American Military History
...rode the Southern tide to its height; most of them died in an angle by the clump of trees, including Confederate Gen. Lewis A. Armistead . Back down the slope scarcely 5,000 survivors fled, razed and raked and maimed again. Many heard Lee greet them. “All this is my fault. Too bad! Too bad! Oh, TOO BAD!” Meade wasted a chance to counterattack, and two days later on a rainy night, Lee began a woeful journey back to Virginia with a wounded column seven miles long. An incredulous President Abraham Lincoln fumed that Lee's army had escaped. “We had them...
Sūnzǐ Reference library
Kerry Brown
The Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography
...behind traces of 100,000 campfires; on the second day 50,000, and on the third day only 30,000 campfires. Pang Juan, eager for victory, concluded that the Qi army had been seriously weakened by mass desertions. He left the bulk of his infantry behind and set out in pursuit with some lightly equipped troops. He and his troops covered two days’ worth of ground in a single day’s march. Sun Bin had calculated that Pang Juan would reach Maling (modern-day Dazhangjia, in Henan Province in east-central China) at dusk. He set an ambush there and waited. As planned,...
logistics Reference library
Charles Messenger
The Oxford Companion to World War II
...capture of Rome. Napoleon's often quoted dictum that armies march on their stomachs serves as a reminder that logistics must be at the forefront of a land force commander's mind. Before the coming of the railway and invention of the internal combustion engine armies subsisted largely by foraging, both for food and fuel, the latter, of course, being horse feed. Indeed, armies often had to keep moving in order to survive. Railways were first used to a significant extent as a means of supplying armies during the American Civil War and in 1914 were to be the...
Warfare Reference library
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome
...not uncommon for commanders to have the army re-form for a second phase. Consequently battles could take several hours. In addition, because commanders did not necessarily give the signal for attack immediately or even soon after forming their armies, soldiers might have to stand in formation for some time. Here the scutum served another purpose: weary soldiers could lean on it until ordered to advance. Roman armies were supported by a relatively sophisticated supply system. Although soldiers carried rations on the march, and regularly foraged, commanders also...
India Reference library
Judith Brown
The Oxford Companion to World War II
...compounded by the dangers of sectarian strife among the civil population, but even more dangerously in the army which ultimately was the bedrock of British power. It would have needed a massive injection of money, manpower, and resources to re-establish British rule; and for this the British public had no stomach, eager rather to welcome its soldiers home and to set about the task of domestic reconstruction. Another factor was that India, compared with its contribution in the earlier years of the century, had declined in economic value to the UK; and Britain was...
