# Quartered Safe Out Here: A Recollection of the War in Burma - Author: [George MacDonald Fraser](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-macdonald-fraser.md) - Quotes: 20 - Book page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-macdonald-fraser/quartered-safe-out-here-a-recollection-of-the-war-in-burma ## Quotes > [Re the Piat anti-tank weapon] Like many British inventions, it looked improbable, unwieldy, and unsafe - and it worked. p. 295 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-macdonald-fraser/quartered-safe-out-here-a-recollection-of-the-war-in-burma/re-the-piat.md) > Not that lance-jack [lance-corporal] is any great eminence; it is an appointment, not a rank, and is the worst dogs-body's job in the Army, as Hitler and I could tell you. p. 135 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-macdonald-fraser/quartered-safe-out-here-a-recollection-of-the-war-in-burma/not-that-lance-jack.md) > No doubt newspaper reports and broadcasts had encouraged us, civilian and military, to regard him [the Japanese] as an evil, misshapen, buck-toothed barbarian who looked and behaved like something sub-Stone Age; the experiences of Allied prisoners of war demonstrated that the reports had not lied and reinforced the view that the only good Jap was a dead one. p. 186 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-macdonald-fraser/quartered-safe-out-here-a-recollection-of-the-war-in-burma/no-doubt-newspaper.md) > No one underestimated Jap: he might be a subhuman creature who tortured and starved prisoners of war to death, raped women captives, and used civilians for bayonet practice, but there was no braver soldier in the whole history of war, and if he fought to a finish... p. 141 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-macdonald-fraser/quartered-safe-out-here-a-recollection-of-the-war-in-burma/no-one-underestimated.md) > Putting a grenade into a bunker had the satisfaction of doing grievous bodily harm to an enemy for whom I felt real hatred, and still do. p. 127 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-macdonald-fraser/quartered-safe-out-here-a-recollection-of-the-war-in-burma/putting-a-grenade.md) > "Gravity, muzzle velocity, density, intensity, one for his nob, and bullshit baffles brains! There - into the breach, old Whatsit, and if all else fails we'll fix a bayonet on the bloody thing and charge! Fire at Will, he's hiding in the cellar, the cowardly sod!" p. 305 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-macdonald-fraser/quartered-safe-out-here-a-recollection-of-the-war-in-burma/gravity-muzzle-velocity.md) > A Gurkha subaltern whom I met later told me that commanding a platoon of them was like leading a group of perfectly-disciplined ten-year-olds, and I believed him. p. 195 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-macdonald-fraser/quartered-safe-out-here-a-recollection-of-the-war-in-burma/a-gurkha-subaltern.md) > We all have kindly impulses, fostered by two thousand years of Christian teaching, gentle Jesus, and love thy neighbour, but we have the killer instinct, too, the murderous impulse of the hunter... p. 175 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-macdonald-fraser/quartered-safe-out-here-a-recollection-of-the-war-in-burma/we-all-have.md) > Only very young soldiers and head-cases object to boredom in war-time. p. 212 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-macdonald-fraser/quartered-safe-out-here-a-recollection-of-the-war-in-burma/only-very-young.md) > ...armchair strategists can look at the last stages of a campaign and say there's nothing left but mopping-up, but if you're holding the mop it's different. The last Jap in the last bunker on the last day can be just as fatal to you personally as the biggest battle at the height of the campaign, and you don't look or think much beyond him - wherever he is. p. 201 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-macdonald-fraser/quartered-safe-out-here-a-recollection-of-the-war-in-burma/armchair-strategists-can.md) > [Regarding the 'Advance to Contact'] The simple truth about war is that if you are on the attack, you can't do a damned thing until you find your enemy, and the only way to do that is to push on, at whatever speed seems prudent, until you see or hear him, or he makes his presence known by letting fly at you. p. 120 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-macdonald-fraser/quartered-safe-out-here-a-recollection-of-the-war-in-burma/regarding-the-advance.md) > Certainly no general [Slim] ever did more with less; in every way, he was one of the great captains. p. 54 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-macdonald-fraser/quartered-safe-out-here-a-recollection-of-the-war-in-burma/certainly-no-general.md) > Brewing up is not merely a matter of infusing tea; making the fire comes into it, and when you have lit and maintained fires in the monsoon, you have nothing more to learn. That came later; at Meiktila it was a simple business of assembling bamboo slivers, igniting them (no small thing, with Indian “Lion” matches which invariably broke and sprayed the striker with flaming phosphorus), and bringing about a gallon of water to the boil in the section brew-tin.  This was a jealously-guarded article, about a foot cubed, made by cutting a compo ration tin in two and piercing the rim for a handle of signal wire.  The casting in of the tea leaves from the section box was the crucial thing, followed by the ceremonial dropping in of two broken matchsticks to attract stray leaves; remove the tin from the heat, invite the guests to scoop out the brew with their piallas [“mugs” in Urdu], and tea was served, each man adding sugar and condensed milk to taste. p. 77 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-macdonald-fraser/quartered-safe-out-here-a-recollection-of-the-war-in-burma/brewing-up-is-not.md) > ...a reluctance to recognise that today's safety and comfort were bought fifty years ago by means which today's intelligentsia find unacceptable, and from which they wish to distance themselves. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-macdonald-fraser/quartered-safe-out-here-a-recollection-of-the-war-in-burma/a-reluctance-to-recognise.md) > ...only those who have been really dry know that there is no drink like chaggle water, brackish, chlorinated, with a fine earthy silt at the bottom, pure Gunga Din juice. We hated it and would have sold our souls for it. p. 32 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-macdonald-fraser/quartered-safe-out-here-a-recollection-of-the-war-in-burma/only-those-who.md) > You cannot, you must not, judge the past by the present; you must try to see it in its own terms and values, if you are to have any inkling of it. You may not like what you see, but do not on that account fall into the error of trying to adjust it to suit your own vision of what it ought to have been. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-macdonald-fraser/quartered-safe-out-here-a-recollection-of-the-war-in-burma/you-cannot-you.md) > I must emphasise that at private soldier level you frequently have no idea where you are, or precisely how you got there, let alone why. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-macdonald-fraser/quartered-safe-out-here-a-recollection-of-the-war-in-burma/i-must-emphasise.md) > ...the standard arm was the most beautiful firearm ever invented, the famous short Lee Enfield.......She's a museum piece now, but I still see her on T.V. newsreels, in the hands of hairy, outlandish men like the Mujahedeen of Afghanistan and capable-looking gentry in North Africa, and I have a feeling that she will be loosing off her ten rounds rapid when the Kalashnikovs and Armalites are forgotten. That's the old reactionary talking: no doubt Agincourt die-hards said the same of the long bow. p. 29 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-macdonald-fraser/quartered-safe-out-here-a-recollection-of-the-war-in-burma/the-standard-arm.md) > There are few sounds as menacing as a bayonet being fixed. p. 109 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-macdonald-fraser/quartered-safe-out-here-a-recollection-of-the-war-in-burma/there-are-few.md) > Another discovery was that the size and importance of an action is no yardstick of its personal unpleasantness. A big operation which commands headlines may be a dawdle for some of those involved, while the little forgotten patrol is a real horror. p. 46 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-macdonald-fraser/quartered-safe-out-here-a-recollection-of-the-war-in-burma/another-discovery-was.md)