Search results
Nov 18, 2017 · Over time Moltke’s statement evolved into a concise adage that circulates widely today: No plan survives first contact with the enemy. A separate Quote Investigator article on this topic is available here. In 1877 a war correspondent for the British newspaper “The Daily News” remarked on the limited value of plans: [4]
His thesis can be summed up by two statements, one famous and one less so, translated into English as "No plan of operations extends with certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy's main strength" (or "no plan survives contact with the enemy") and "Strategy is a system of expedients".
The phrase “no plan survives contact with the enemy” is a common idiom used to describe the unpredictable nature of warfare. It suggests that even the most well thought-out plans can quickly become irrelevant once they are put into action and faced with unexpected challenges.
BY RALPH KEYES. On the eve of the war in Iraq, variations on this quotation were. ubiquitous: "No plan survives contact with the enemy." That thought was usually attributed to Dwight Eisenhower. Or did Napoleon say it? George Patton perhaps? No one seemed sure.
Sep 17, 2019 · No plan survives contact with the enemy (or the commander, for that matter), but good planners understand that planning is an unending journey and the production of a plan is rarely the final destination. The best planners also understand that every opportunity to plan offers an opportunity to learn, as well.
Aug 25, 2021 · A concise version of this guidance became popular in the twentieth century: No plan survives first contact with the enemy. A separate article about this saying is available here. In 1926 a thematic precursor appeared in an article by pseudonymous sports journalist “Fair Play” who discussed the career of boxer Tiger Flowers.
Later Prussian and German generals, such as Helmuth Graf von Moltke, were clearly influenced by Clausewitz: Moltke's widely quoted statement that "No operational plan extends with high certainty beyond the first encounter with the main enemy force" is a classic reflection of Clausewitz's insistence on the roles of chance, friction, "fog ...
