[MUD-Dev] [Off-list] Killology (Was: Retention without Addiction?)

[Harrok]

"shren" <shren at io.com> said:

> Allied Generals were studying casualty rates after one of the
> World Wars (II, I think) and they noted that a lot of casualties
> were, in one way or another, psychological.  People would lock up
> under the horrors of combat and never 'unlock', or decided that
> the best thing to do would be to hide under a rock untill someone
> came by to tell them they won or came by to demand thier
> surrender.

Yes, it was World War II, and the small group studies were done by
the US military based on their experiences in the PTO. IIRC, the two
most interesting points raised by the research were:

  -- combat soldiers don't keep fighting because of patriotism or
  appeals to the flag or the prospect of a seventy-two hour leave in
  Paris. The fight in combat because they don't want to let down the
  small group that surrounds them. This point seems obvious now, and
  I'm sure would have always been obvious to soldiers in their
  foxholes, but doesn't seem to have been obvious to the military
  authorities of the allied countries until the research was done.

  -- under combat conditions, many soldiers were simply unable to
  fire their weapons, or just fired away in the general direction of
  the enemy. The combat effectiveness of military units was due to a
  minority of soldiers who were able to focus on their task.

Bill


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