FIGHTING MORALE

Camp News, Volume 3, Issue 112, 6 March 1942, Page 2

FIGHTING MORALE

PSYCHOLOGY NOW PLAYS ITS PART IN ARMY TRAINING.

Morale is one of the most important factors in the efficient functioning of an army and, in training the soldier, morale is included under the general heading of psychology. The study of . types is practically inexhaustible, but .for the purpose of this subject it may be accepted that are three main psychological differentiations in mankind; there is the type which may be termed “muscular” "Xthe moving and doing kind), with physical strength an outstanding characteristic, not highly emotional, nor very intellectual. This type comes to the army from various civilian occupations—they may have been ironworkers, builders, navvies, stevedores, etc.

Then there is the “intellectual” type, interested in facts and figures, not always exceptionally well developed physically (although training can quickly do much to remedy this), probably coming from a profession— Law, Medicine, Accountancy,.. Science of one kind or another, etc. These usually are not particularly emotional people.

Finally, there is the emotional type, - and the civilian occupations which e contain most of these are the theatrie cal and allied professions, politics, etc., or they may have been quite suc- - cessful commercial travellers. f These three classifications give only t the “pure” types, and in between each - of them are an infinite number of ? mixtures of the basic types, with pre--3 dominance of one feature or another - —and the army has to deal with them - all and be in a position to foretell t how they will act, when they are 3 trained, both as individuals or en - masse, in given circumstances'. In the army of the past, the physi- ’ cal and emotional characteristics of the men were considered most important. It is quite obvious that a soldier should be fit and strong, of course, and in the days of physical combat, with sword against sword, bayonet against bayonet, charges, etc., certain ferocity was considered advisable. In very old text books it was even stated that “when the order to charge is given bugles shall be blown, drums shall be beaten, and * the men should cheer loudly.” . To-day, however, while the soldier still needs to be fit, his intellect is the next important feature to be trained. Generally he will have control of some form ’ of mechanization, and for this he requires a knowledge of how best to use his instrument of warfare, and a cool,.calm, calculating brain when he is in action. The most necessary result to be attained in army training is a degree of automatism, but this word must not be confused with the popular con- 1 cepfion of an unthinking robot. It is used in its deeper and fundamental meaning: “Auto”self; “matic” —acting. This is the reason for what is so often considered, excessive and monotonous drill of one kind or another; < visual and aural instruction both have to play their part, also. For instance, for most people it is not sufficient to hear that a machine gun is loaded in such and such a way. There is much more chance that

they will understand and remember if they see it being done, and at the same time hear the parts named and the processes explained. Finally, they have to do it for themselves, and do it and do it again and again, until they could do it in their sleep; then, no matter what the circumstances, they can do what is necessary in the quickest possible time. - A high commander, when planning operations, must have the brain processes of a mathematician, coldly seeking facts, figures and formulae, with a complete submergence of personal feeling. •

In the army an order is an order undoubtedly,' but there are various methods of giving orders, and officers are advised to discriminate in this respect as much as possible. Some individuals react immediately to a whispered request, whilst others need a shouted, staccato order before they even realize they are being told to do something; certainly this latter type would never carry out an order smartly unless the tone in which it is given is urgent.

In giving orders to individuals, therefore, their officers have mentally to classify the types which should be given an authoritative but quietly worded request, and those which must be subjected to a harsh and shouted command.

" The aim of military training, apart from producing efficiency in weapons, is to make all men uniform in every respect. This is the aim, but such a result is manifestly impossible. There are differences and divisions disturbing the absolute uniformity of the most efficiently trained unit, and'although these may not be so apparent to a civilian observer they are always visible to the trained eye of an experienced officer. However, training along the right lines can help to give ' at least an appearance of uniformity and every artifice has to be used, to ] obtain something approaching a pat- j tern.

Some pieces of material can be cut I with a slow-moving knife,- while others require a high speed cutter. Some require a careful gentle pressure; other enormous pressure,. in order to obtain patterns of the same size and appearance. So an officer has to know the differences in the men he is training, and use the best possible methods to obtain his uniform ! result.