SOLDIERS AND TEAMS

 

The importance of psychology and sociology

The Germans were aware at an early stage of the importance of psychology as a science to get the right man in the right place, to strengthen morale and to harden the troops for the tension and stress of modern technological warfare. That, of course, is not miracle, Germany beeing the cradle of modern psychology. The First World War, in which units were quickly disbanded, had shown that a new type of soldier was needed, no longer someone who functioned under the all-seeing eye of his officer, but someone who could operate independently in the noman's land of the front. The efforts in the field of psychology focused on creating this new type of independently thinking soldiers. In addition, it was realized that the psychological aspects of new weapons such as tanks and aircraft demanded more than just knowledge and skills, but also imposed demands on the personal qualities and competences of the troops.

 

The drill, seen in other countries as one of the most important instruments for discipline, was disbanded long before the First World War. The Germans acknowledged that this way of training troops did not fit with their views on modern warfare.

 

Auftragstaktik as a command concept offered clear training objectives for all army units throughout the country, the training programs were extremely realistic and primarely aimed at developing the capacities of the individual soldier, and then those of larger units. The training courses fell on fertile soil due to the high level of education of the recruits

 

Socialization is core

The core concepts of the German army in the field of men and teams was the socialization of a group of people into a team, the Einheit, a central element within the German army. In addition, there was a constant focus on strengthening the agility and resilience of the unit thus created. The Germans expect three things from their teams and their responsible officers/NCO’s: 

• They had to perform: achieve the goals in accordance with Auftragstaktik 
• They had to be able to reflect and learn on behalf of their own team as well as for army organization as a whole (through Erfahrungsberichte)
• They had to socialize, to become a unit.

Much emphazis was placed on the professionalism of the individual and the team. Everything within the German training and personnel planning system - from the recruitment and selection of troops within a well-defined geographical area (Wehrkreis), the division rotation system to the reception of rehabilitated troops within their own units - was aimed at achieving and maintaining a large degree of social cohesion in the breadth and depth of the organization.  Social cohesion in the military context meant that everyone in a unit knew each other well and had experienced each other in combat situations. It was assumed that this cohesion ensured that the units functioned more smoothly, stayed better together in combat situations and disintegrated less fast.

 

In addition, the units in the German army had a remarkably democratic character. In the context of Auftragstaktik, the emphasis was on jointly reaching goals as a team and thus on horizontal communication.

 

Relations between officers/NCO's and their men should not be based on power, but on mutual respect and authority. As a result of this, from the beginning of his training the officer was urged to win the confidence of the unit that was entrusted to him without jeopardizing his authority.

 

Division rotation system

Special attention should be paid to the rotation system. Once the division was in active field service, a training battalion remained stationed at the home base as part of the Ersatzheer. This training battalion - Ersatz Bataillon - was responsible for training and delivering troops to the division at the front. There was a rotation system in which officers/nco’s with combat experience (often officers who were rehabilitating after an injury) were deployed for the 'mother' units of the Ersatzheer at the home base. The importance of this should not be underestimated and this system ensured that the recruits:

• quickly got a feeling for l'esprit de corps of the division and 
• were trained in the state of the art combat tactics.

This method prevented that recruits were trained by officers who had behind on the home front and were alienated from the active combat service, it prevented that two parallel worlds arose. 
 
After their training, the troops traveled with their officers as a group to the front. This meant that they could support each other during this exciting period. In addition, they formed in this way de facto an integrated fighting force that could be useful in the Soviet Union if their trains was attacked by partisans. To ensure a smooth transition between theory and practice, each division of the Feldheer had a so called Feldersatz Bataillon. This provided additional training and acclimatization of the newly arrived men and officers during battle breaks at the front. In addition, the newly arrived troops were taught the intricacies of the specific part of the front to prevent the 'green hoorns' from getting killed during the first days at the front.

 

All these efforts made German units psychologically very resilient: while 25% of the Allied troops in Normandy had signs of battle fatique, these kinds of problems were unkown on the German side; severe psychological problems amongs American troops amounted around 8%, but were as good as non existent amongst German troops. And under pressure units tended to unite, stand and fight together, instead of desintegrate and everyone fighting his own war.