Men Against Fire: The Problem of Battle Command

225 Pages·2000·7.86 MB·English

by  S. L. A. Marshall

M E W F I R E
against
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/"I I
against
II
F I R E ! i
The
I' Problem
of Battle
Command
MARSHALL
COLONEL, AUS
Historian
of the
European Theater
of
Operations
University of Oklahoma Press
Norman
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-publicationD ata
Marshall, S. L. A. (Samuel Lyman Atwood), 1900-1977.
Men against fire : the problem of battle command / by S. L. A.
Marshall.
p. cm.
Originally published: Washington : Infantry Journal ; New
York : William Morrow & Co., ~1947.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-8061-3280-9 (alk. paper)
1. Command of troops. 2. Leadership. 3. Morale. 4. United
States-Armed Forces. I. Title
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and
durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book
Longevity of the Council on Library Resources, Inc. @
Published by the University of Oklahoma Press, Norman,
Publishing Division of the University. Copyright O 1947 by S. L. A.
Marshall. Introduction by Russell W. Glenn copyright O 2000 by
the University of Oklahoma Press. All rights reserved.
Manufactured in the U.S.A. First printing of the University of
Oklahoma Press edition, 2000.
C O N T E N T S
INTRODUCTION by Russell W. Glenn
AUTHOR'S NOTE
1. THE ILLUSION OF POWER
2. ON FUTURE WAR
3. MAN ON THE BATTLEFIELD
4. COMBAT ISOLATION
5. RATIO OF FIRE
6. FIRE AS THE CURE
7. THE MULTIPLES OF INFORMATION
8. THE RIDDLE OF COMMAND
9. TACTICAL COHESION
10. WHY MEN FIGHT
l l. THE AGGRESSIVE WILL
12. MEN UNDER FIRE
13. FOOTNOTE TO HISTORY
NOTES TO THE INTRODUCTION
INDEX
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To my old friends and comrades of the Historical Division,
War Department Special Staff,
and of the Historical Division,
European Theater of Operations, because they com bined
a strong sense of duty with an eager
and imaginative questing for knowledge.
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INTRODUCTION
S AMUEL Lyrnan Atwood Marshal1 (1900-1977) was one
of the United States' best known and most influential
twentiet h-cen tury military authors. More familiarly
known as S. L. A. Marshall, or SLAM, both military officers
and civilian historians considered him a foremost expert on
American ground combat performance. His reputation was
built on extensive service as an army reserve officer, service
that provided the material for the more than thirty books and
widely-read reports he authored. One such work became syn-
onymous with its author: Men against Fire. This slender vol-
ume established Marshall's prominence as a military analyst
when it first was published in 1947.
Marshal1 prided himself on being a self-made man with the
savvy, boldness, and sheer drive to overcome any of life's
obstacles. By his own telling, his first interaction with the mil-
itary entailed cajoling the doctor who gave him his World
War I enlistment physical into allowing him to enter a com-
bat branch despite having flat feet.' Marshall's autobiog-
raphy, Bringing Up the Rea?;r elates his early wartime discovery
"that fire of any kind did not unnerve" him, how by the end
of the war he had participated in U.S. actions at Soissons, St.
Mihiel, and Meuse-Argonne, "survived inhalation of phos-
1