BREAKING POINT.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 764, 22 July 1916, Page 8

BREAKING POINT.

HE THAT ENDURES. THE STRAIN OF WAR. HOW MUCH CAN THE SOLDIER j STAND? |"ln the last resort all wars depend upon the resisting power of between live and six feet of shrinking human flesh. .. . There is always a breaking- j point for the mortal soldier.] "The Breaking-point in War*' isj Ihe subject of a fine appreciation of Ihe soldier's virtues and strength by I Mr John Buchan in his new volume j of "Nelson's History of Ihe War"; (vol. XII), based on the two slate-; ments just quoted. Exactly how much of war can: men stand? j What is the human breaking-, point? asks Mr Buchan. "The men who fought at Mara-! thon were not different in average | •shysiqtie and average temperament I from Ihose who fought in Cham-| oagne and Poland,*' says Mr Buchan. I "A pressure too great will over-1 power body and spirit. We have! I no scale by which to measure thai pressure: but. whether it be produc-j | ■•(! by clouds of arrows, by the I swords of Ihe legionaries, or by the; shells of great guns, it must at alii Mimes in history have been approximately Ihe same in quantity." Difficulty of Sitting Still.

"The psychology of the lighting Minn in war has never as yet been nade the subject of a professorial treatise. It is a work which might have been expected from the Teutonic genius, but it may be that the difficulty■ of making laboratory experiments stood in the way. Consequently the task has been left to the novelists,, who often argue without data. But, since mankind will always speculate upon a matter which so vitally concerns it, we have .1 variety of working rules which every soldier knows, but which he rarely formulates. "The chief concerns the difficulty of silting still under heavy lire. That is why the men in the support trenches which the enemy is shelling have a more difficult task than the attack. The chance of movement is a great relief, and the Tact that a definite job is before a man gives him something better to think about than expectations of a speedy decease. That is why, too. the officer, who has the problem of keeping his men together and getting them somewhere, is less likely to bo troubled with nerves than the man whose busines is merely to follow, To keep the mind engrossed is the great prophylactic against fear. A Twofold Question.

The practical question which has been often discussed among soldiers is when the breaking-point is reached—after what proportion of losses the defensive or the offensive will crumble. The question is really twofold, for the problem in defence is different in kind from the problem in attack. In the latter, to carry on requires a certain modicum of hope and mental energy; in the former there need be no hope.but only a passive and fatalistic resistance. It is useles to speculate about the break-ing-point in a defence. Against savage enemies, when there is no hope of quarter, even ordinary troops will resist desperately. Again, if men from pride of honour or from any other cause are wholly resolved not to surrender, they will perish to the last man. "There was no man left of the Spartans at Thermopylae, or Roland's paladins at Roncesvalles, or the steel circles of the Scots at Flodden. Yakub and the defenders of the Black Flag were utterly destroyed at Omdurman. There were no survivors of that portion of the 3rd Candaian Brigade at the Second Battle of Ypres which held St. Julien. None returned from that company of the 2nd Scots Guards who were cut off at Festubert on May It). They remained on the held of honour with a ring of the enemy's dead around them. The men, too, who find themselves in the last extremity, and are supported by a shining faith, will wait on death as on a bridal. After What Losses?

"But in attack the question of the breaking-poini is pertinent. After what losses will a unit lose ils coherence and dissolve? The question, of course, only applies to corporate things like a company, a squadron, or a battalion, which depend for their military effect on training and discipline. A surge of individuals vowed to death will perish to the last man. A rush of Ghazis, determined to enter Paradise, will not cease so long as any are alive. "The question is, how far discipline will carry men who have no hankering for Paradise. . . . Men Without Officers. "Much depends upon the casualties among the officers. Normally, if a high proportion of officers fall, Ihe unit will go to pieces, even though Us total losses may not be extravagant. But even Ibis rule has striking cxceplions, such as the performance of the 7th Glouccslers at Gallipoli, who fought from midday till sunset on August 8 without any officer, and the 19th London at Loos, who, with their commissioned ranks practically out of action, carried out their part in the advance without a hitch.

"Again, the sense of winning, of being the spear-head of a successful thrust, may add to corporate discipline the complete fearlessness of the fanatic. The human spirit may be keyed up to such a point that each man acquires a separate purpose distinct from the purpose of his unit, and will go on, however badly his unit is mauled. The i)th Black \Valch at Loos, and more than one regiment

in Champagne, provided instances where a battalion continued to advance successfully when it was little more than a company strong. Or pride in a glorious record may in exceptional cases inspire the wildest heroism, even when there is no hope of victory, as wjis proved by the performance of Irmanov's 3rd i Caucasians in their great fight at Jaslo, in the retreat from the Donajetz.! Terror of War. "At first sight il would seem sale to say that the most modern condi-1 lions of war must weaken the nerve power for an attack. The shattering: percussion of the great shells, the j curtain of shrapnel, the malign i chatter of the machine guns, the heavy fumes of high explosives, the deadly effect of trench mortars, and j such extra tortures as gas, asphyxiating shells. and lachrymatory: bombs, would seem to make up an j inferno too awful for man to endure, j "Besides, there is the maddening. slowness of il all. In the old days i batl'.es were over in a few hours, or,j iat the most, a day. An attack sue- \ ! ceeded or failc:l. but did not stretch ;inlo endless stages, each involving a! 'new effort and. in the intervals, the j | grimmest discomfort. Much can be: '(lone if there is good hope that it will | isoon be over. Rut if the gain of one; position only paves the way for an | 'attack upon a second, the nervous j tension will not be relieved by any | j such expectation. A man cannot tell himself. 'lf I live through the next, ! half-hour I will be s: fe,' for he j knows that even if he lives through, the next half-hour there is every: I chance thai he will fall live minutes i later. A modern attack is of neccs-! sity lengthy, dogged, and sullen. j

Increase in Nerve Power. "Yet it may be questioned if this increase in the terror of war has : lowered the breaking-point. To i meet it modern armies seem to have j attained an increase in nerve power. ■ The explanation, perhaps, is that the i carnival of violence carries with it its own cure. After a little experi-: ence of it the senses and imagination are deadened. "The soldier revises his outlook, and the new terror becomes part of, the background, and so is half for-' gotten. If the tension at any one time lasts too long, the deadening, may stop, and the tortured nerves be exposed again. But if the senses are | once blunted, and no opportunity i is given for that awakening when j the wheel comes full circle, the hu- j man soul will adapt itself to the strangest conditions. That seems to | be one moral of the campaign. . . .

Greatest Safeguard

"The greatest ofall safeguards is simply custom. It is the end to! which the other safeguards are an-; ciliary. Human nature becomes case-I hardened under the sternest trials.! If troops arc 'entered' skilfully to: the terrors of war, it is amazing! what a protective sheath forms over; the soldier's nerves. A new bat-; talion during its first day in the trenches may be restless and 'jumpy'; in a week it is at ease, ami most probably 100, callous to the risk of the business. i

i "All men employed in dangerous j trades —fishermen, sailors, miners, railwaymen—-have this happy facuiI ty. It is a Western form of kismet, \n belief that till their hour comes they are safe. If death at any moment may appear out of the void ' it is useless to fuss about it, for noi thing they do can prevent il. | Once this stoicism is attained the i men are seasoned. War, instead of being a series of horrid tremors, becomes a routine, even a dull routine. |lt seems strange to use the word I'dull' in connection with so hazardous a game, but such is the case. i Seasoned troops adjust themselves to their novel environment, and for | one man who finds it too nervel racking 10 will find it monotonous. "With due preparation and careful treatment, it seems certain that even in modern war we can postpone the breaking-point very far.

Joy of Battle. i "This chapter would be incom- ! plete without a reference to that high and sublimated battle spirit j which is rare at the best of times. but which in all armies is possessed |by ihe fortunate few. 'Joy of battle' 'is a phrase too lightly used, and may i well seem to most men a grim rois- | nomer. Yet it is a reality, and ! without it war would be but a soul- ! less and mercantile adventure. It | comes not from the deadening of : feeling, but from ils quickening and i transmutation. It belongs especially to youth, which finds in the colossal hazards of war an enlarged vitality. It is not pugnacity, for there is no rancour in it; the Happy WarI rior fights not because he has much jto hate, but because he has much lo I love. "The true type is Ihe minstrel Volker of Alsace, in the 'Lay of the | Nibelungs,' whose weapon was a sword-liddle bow; every blow he ; struck went home, but every blow , was also a note of music. Such souls have won not relief only, but joy; not merely serenity, but exultation. The glory of life is never felt more keenly than when the next moment may see il quenched, for the greatest of its glories is to be | armed and mailed for the fray. Three Battle Tempers. | "In the ascending scale of battle tempers we may place firs I acquiescence, then peace, and last this posiI tive glow and welcome. "Captain Julian Grenfell, who ! was, like Lord Herbert of Cherbury, j renowned in many spoils and j studies, fell at the Second Battle of I Ypres, and in the days before the ! action, when spring was flushing the Flanders meadows, he wrote I what may come to be regarded, alike ' for its occasion and its intrinsic lvalue, as the chief of the war's be- ! quests to poetry." Captain Grenfell's verses lo which IMr Buchan pays this high tribute I are quoted on Ibis page.