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Christopher Vokes Biography

Christopher Vokes

Major General Christopher Vokes CB, CBE, DSO, CD (13 April 1904 – 27 March 1985) was a senior Canadian Army officer who fought in World War II. He commanded the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade during the Allied invasion of Sicily. Promoted to major-general he led the 1st Canadian Infantry Division through several battles in the Italian campaign. This included fierce house-to-house fighting in the Battle of Ortona and the advance north to the Hitler Line. In 1944, he took over command of the 4th Canadian Armoured Division and fought in the Battle of the Hochwald. During the latter stages of this battle he notably ordered his division to raze the German town of Friesoythe, bulldoze the remains and use the rubble to make good the cratered local roads. After the war, Vokes commanded the Canadian Army Occupation Force in Europe, before returning to Canada to undertake further command assignments. He retired in 1959 and died in 1985 at the age of 80.

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Christopher Vokes Quotes

The most important thing, my father told me, which I have never forgotten, and which I have often put unto practice was: If you get into a quarrel with anybody, hit him first. "If you hit first, the battle is half-won," my father always said "Don't let him hit first. You hit him first. ""What's more," he never forgot to say, too "Usually one blow is all you need. "I found this to be true.

Battle, Blow, Father, Practice, Quarrel, Said

But now I salute you who follow me,It is my time to stand at ease. . . content.

Ease, Follow Me, Salute, Stand

Command is often not what you do but the way you do it.

Command, Way, Yawning

No one's reputation is quite what he himself perceives it ought to be.

Ought, Perceive, Perceives, Quite, Reputation

I wanted people who wouldn't become too worried about casualties. One always should be concerned about casualties, but the risk of incurring casualties can't be allowed to affect decisions, unless it's evident casualties will be prohibitively heavy. There may be no safe way to write this.

Decision, Evident, Heavy, People, Safe, Writing

Generals do not always run wars the way they would like to, nor the troops under them.

Running, Troops, Under, War, Way

I reckon that the Bailey Bridge and the bulldozer were the greatest advances in military engineering in the years between World War I and World War II.

Bailey, Engineering, Military, War

Perhaps if Hitler had had the wisdom to withdraw his troops and prepare for the defense of his own country, Germany, despite the loss of face this would entail in the losing of all Italy, then the course of the war, if not the outcome, would have been quite different.

Country, Course, Face, Germany, Loss, War

I believe that one can't command sitting on one's ass in the rear. One has to up among the forward brigade commanders, even as far as battalion commanders, especially if one is fighting a defensive action. One simply has to know what is going on.

Battalion, Believe, Brigade, Fighting, Sitting

I looked for certain attributes in a soldier. I know the modern method is to put the attributes into a computer and see what comes out. But as far as I am concerned, the computer is the worst damn instrument devised by man to screw up man-management.

Attributes, Concerned, Men, Modern, Screw Ups, Soldier