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From the beginning to the end of the war, the metronome at headquarters was always set at too slow a beat.

— Strange Defeat by Marc Léopold Benjamin Bloch

The low standard of the reservists was more indicative of the extent of France’s mobilization – one man in eight – than of the state of its regular army formations.

— Blitzkrieg by Len Deighton (Page 112)

Flying home from his Anschluss triumph, Hitler had shown General Keitel how his mind was working. He put his hand across a small newspaper map of Europe so that his finger and thumb covered Germany and Austria. He nipped Czechoslovakia and then winked at Keitel.

— Blitzkrieg by Len Deighton (Page 71)

But as the war continued, it was Hitler’s political dogma that ensured the failure of his military aims. His worst military decisions – the refusal to let units withdraw to better positions, the obsession with towns that had strong psychological overtones (such as Leningrad and Stalingrad), and the political interference with the army – all these stemmed from his fears of political consequences. Politically motivated plans can be fatal to world conquest as to car factories.

— Blitzkrieg by Len Deighton (Page 64 - 65)