HOT BUT HAPPY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 108, 8 May 1943, Page 4

HOT BUT HAPPY

ON TO GUADALCANAR

ACTION PROSPECTS A TONIC (By ROBIN MILLER) (No. IV.) ABOARD A U.S. ARMY TRANSPORT. The temperature reached as high as 130 degrees in the troops' quarters of this old and crowded transport vessel as we lay on a glassy harbour under the blazing tropical sun waiting for the convoy for Guadalcahar to form up and 'depart. ''Terrific" was the only word we could taditor the heat, and the American Army boys coming up from below far a gulp of fresh air were running with perspiration from scalp to toe, as if they had just stepped out of a hot Sh We er 'knew it was exceptional because the day was; so breathless and the ship was lying sti 11. But even if it was going to be like that every day I doubt whether these boys would have minded it much beyond the usual grousing that keeps every soldier contented. The reason was that now at long last, after months of garrison duty on an island which the war had not touched, they were going to GuadalIt made little difference that the fighting on the island was over, or that for all they knew they might merely be relieving other troops in need of a rest. They were going to Guadalcanar to a combat zone at last. It did not matter how uncomfortable the journey might be, nor how few amenities they would enjoy when they got there. Nothing mattered except that it was a combat Z °ln" the attitude of these men lies the fundamental secret of the morale 6f any army. Discipline,.eagerness and efficiency all bear directly on one basic factor: the prospect of action. In the navy and the. air force it is not so overshadowing, because there energy is absorbed all the time in sailing the ships and flying the planes. But in the army —and in any army—once. the peak of training, short of experience, has been reached, morale begins to sag if there is no prospect of action to sustain it. It can never be compteS? replaced by such artificial stimulants as extra comforts organised sports and recreation, or attempts to educate, the. men into realising the strategical importance of their position "in the event of an to is?a booster of morale, there is no substitute for action. Observation and personal experience have taught me that lesson many times from Greece to Guadalcanar. I have seen spirits droop, grumbling increase, and homesiclmess and warsickness grow when the first taste of battle teemed far away; and I have almost heard men's hearts sing as they went up the line. It is not that the average soldier is a killer by heart who thirsts for battle; nor does he want to be wounded or killed himself. All he wants is to be in action in some place where he feels he is really taking part in the war Otherwise, he begins to think he could be more useful at home—and, m the extreme case, to think of ways of getting there. The Way It Goes

There is nothing new about this phenomenon of psychology. The adjutant of my unit m Egypt used to tell us, when we grew impatient for action: "You youngsters are all alike. You all wish to goodness you could get into battle. So did we in the last war. And, once you get there, you'll wish to goodness you hadn't been so impatient. And then after a while you'll want to go back °That r fs the way it goes. There has been so much action in the Middle East that the problem has been less acute there than on any other front. We know it has been serious in Britain, especially during the "invasion complex" months, ana it is obviously difficult here in the Pacific, where so many islands have to be garrisoned against a very remote danger of attack, where land action as such has been confined to small-scale fighting on one small island, and where for reasons of security the man in the ranks cannot be told whether anything exciting or important is planned for the near future. «.■'.'■* >* It is unfortunate, but it is inevitj able. Strategists cannot be swayed in their decisions to attack or hold fast by the boredom some garrison force is suffering on an island a thousand miles from the enemy. And there is not enough space on Guadalcanar to hold every soldier who envies the men this ship is taking there. ...... .