Outburst Quotes
After being surrounded by the Germans for seven days at what would later be called the Battle of the Bulge, a German officer notified the Americans that they would accept their surrender. McAuliffe’s one word response summed up the resolve of the Americans who were surrounded. The Americans managed to hold the line and defeat the German’s last major offensive of World War II.
The phrase had been a common one in naval parlance to indicate a cannon on board a ship that had broken free of the ropes and restraints and was rolling around. These were very dangerous to the ship. Roosevelt, as Secretary of the Navy was very familiar with that use. Today, the term is almost exclusively used in the Roosevelt political/administrative sense.
