[Ads-l] "War is months of boredom..."

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Intriguing topic and excellent find, JL. Here is an instance in a
London newspaper in 1909.

Date: September 28, 1909
Newspaper: The Westminster Gazette
Newspaper Location: London, England
Article: The Army Manoeuvres
Author: Civis
Quote Page 1, Column 3
Database: Newspapers.com
Database: British Newspaper Archive

[Begin excerpt]
Army manoeuvres on a large scale are not primarily intended for the
instruction of regimental officers and men, nor, in point of fact, do
they teach them anything but the virtue of patience. Just as war
itself has not inaptly been described by an old campaigner as
consisting of weeks of intolerable boredom, punctuated by moments of
agonising fear, so Grand Manoeuvres are, so far as the rank-and-file
are concerned, made up of periods of laborious marches and intense
discomfort, varied by impossible tactical situations.
[End excerpt]

Garson O'Toole

On Sat, Dec 26, 2020 at 3:10 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> This is now a well-known proverb, usually in the form "months of
> boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror."
>
>  London Times (Nov. 4, 1914), Sec. II, p. 5:
>
> “THE BAPTISM OF FIRE — CAVALRY SUBALTERN’S VIVID EXPERIENCE…Some one
> described this war as ‘Months of boredom punctuated by moments of terror.’”
>
> Daily Advocate (Stamford, Conn.) (Dec. 9, 1914), p. 5:
>
> “LONDON….The following…account of the war was written by Lieut. H. O. Anne,
> of the Royal Field Artillery: … ‘One of our officers, after the South
> African War [1899–1902] described war as a period of intense discomfort
> punctuated by moments of abject terror.’”
>
>
> JL
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org