Table Of ContentTHE COMBAT SOLDIER
The Changing Character of War Programme is an interdisciplinary research
grouplocatedattheUniversityofOxford.
The Combat Soldier
Infantry Tactics and Cohesion in the
Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
ANTHONY KING
1
3
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Contents
ListofFigures vi
Preface viii
1. TheElementaryFormsoftheMilitaryLife 1
2. Cohesion 24
3. TheMarshallEffect 40
4. CombatMotivation 62
5. MassTactics 98
6. ModernTactics 129
7. ThePersistenceofMass 164
8. BattleDrills 208
9. Training 266
10. Professionalism 338
11. TheFemaleSoldier 376
12. TheProfessionalSociety 419
Notes 446
Bibliography 503
Index 521
List of Figures
3.1. MakinIslands 47
6.1a. Trenchtotrenchattack.Platooninthefirstwave 141
6.1b. Trenchtotrenchattack.Platooninthesecondwave 142
6.2. Attackinopenwarfare 143
6.3a. PlateI(aplatoonadvancingtoattack) 144
6.3b. PlateII(aplatoonattackingastrongpoint) 145
8.1. Phaselinebattledrill 229
8.2a. Demonstratingthe90degreepivot 245
8.2b. Hepivotswiththefeet 246
8.2c. Assumingthecombatposition 247
8.3. Canadiansoldierspractisethecombatglide 248
8.4a. Stacking,RoyalMarinesCQBcourse 252
8.4b. Marinesstackinthecompound 253
8.5a. Thefive-stepentrysequence 255
8.5b. No.3entersandclearsindepth 255
8.5c. No.4entersandteamestablishesdominantposition 256
8.5d. Two-mandominantposition 256
8.6. Aroomclearancedemonstrationbydirectingstaff 257
8.7. Bodyarmourtobodyarmourdrill 259
9.1. InfantryofficercourseROCdrill 285
9.2. ROCdrill 286
9.3. BritisharmyROCdrill 287
9.4. FrencharmyROCdrill 292
9.5. Theinfantryimmersiontrainer,CampPendleton 306
9.6. Range220,29Palms,MCAGCC 308
9.7a. Thecompound,CommandoTrainingCentre 309
9.7b. Thecompound,CommandoTrainingCentre 310
9.7c. Thecompound,CommandoTrainingCentre 311
9.8. StanfordTrainingArea 312
9.9. ShinKallay,StanfordTrainingArea 312
ListofFigures vii
9.10a. CENZUB,Jeoffrecourt.Themoderntown 314
9.10b. CENZUB,Jeoffrecourt.Theoldtown 315
9.10c. CENZUB,Jeoffrecourt.Thesuburbs 316
9.10d. CENZUB,Jeoffrecourt.Attackonnewtown 317
9.11a. Groningenurbancombatfacility 318
9.11b. C-Canvillage 318
9.12a. RoyalMarinespractisepivoting 322
9.12b. Pivoting 322
9.13a. Canadiansoldierspractisethepivot 323
9.13b. Pivot 323
9.14. JägerRegimenttrainingatBonnland 335
Preface
TherearefewobviousadvantagestobeingasociologistinBritaintoday.The
status of the discipline in the academy and wider society has never been as
high as its intellectual influence has perhaps deserved and, after a high point
in the 1950s and 1960s, its political influence in the United Kingdom has
nowalsodeclined,notwithstandingAnthonyGiddens’srelationshipwithNew
Labour. With the ending of the post-war settlement and especially after the
end of the Cold War, sociologists in the UK seem to have struggled to fire
the imagination of students in a way their predecessors did up to the 1970s.
Yet, for all these ills, the sociologist still enjoys one often overlooked but
extraordinary privilege. While they might complain about their status or
the condition of the contemporary university, sociologists are accorded the
rare benefit of being allowed and, indeed, required by their profession
to engage with individuals and groups, with whom, in reality, they have no
proper business to interact and whom, as mere citizens or even as scholars
inotherdisciplines,theywouldneverhavetheopportunityofmeeting.These
acquaintances may be initiated for purely intellectual reasons in the first
instancebuttheexperienceofparticipatinginotherlife-worldsandalternative
cultures can often become among the most enriching and edifying of any
sociologist’s life, even if the insights gained from the field find no place in
formal academic journals or monographs. In my previous work, I have
enjoyedthehospitalityof First PeoplesinBritish Columbiaandfootballfans
inManchesterandbeenluckyenoughtoparticipateineventsofrareintensity
with them. During the research for this book, I have once again been privil-
eged to have been invited into a world to which I was a stranger; to be
surprised,shocked,anddelightedbyinnumerableunexpectedandfascinating
experiences, from the deserts of California and Afghanistan to the woods of
Hammelburg.
Yet, in some ways, this research has been more poignant than any of my
previous engagements. Samuel Johnson famously claimed ‘that every man
thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier’. Perhaps. Yet, during
this research, it was difficult to envy the soldiers whose duty it was to patrol
daily out from their bases in Afghanistan. I felt no desire to experience the
deprivations and dangers endured by combat soldiers and, rather than inad-
equacy, I felt relieved that, unlike previous generations from the First World
WartoVietnam,Ihadnotbeenconscriptedintoforcedmilitaryservicebythe
state. Accordingly, whatever an individual might think about the strategic
wisdom and morality of these campaigns in Iraq or Afghanistan or even the
Preface ix
verylegitimacyofthearmedforcesthemselves,itwouldbedifficultnottofeel
humbleinthepresenceoftheyoungmenandwomenwhohaveservedonthe
frontlineinthesetheatres,especiallywhenitisrememberedhowyoungmost
ofthemhavebeen.Althoughseniornon-commissionedofficersandcommis-
sionedfieldofficersapproachmaturity,thevastmajorityofsoldierscurrently
inAfghanistan wereborninthelate1980s,some intheearly1990s;they are
half my age—or less. Yet, despite their youth, they have experienced a level
ofhardship,trauma,and,aboveall,personallosswhichisunimaginabletome
and probably to most of us, spared the ordeal of combat. Itis hard not to be
movedbythedepthoftheirexperiences.Iamgratefulforthetimewhichthese
soldiers—maleandfemale—gavemeandtheirinterestintheproject.Perhaps
theirstoriesmightreinvigoratetheinterestoftheircivilianpeersinsociology
as a discipline, convincing them that it has an enduring, even unique, rele-
vancetotheworld-historicalprocesseswhicharecurrentlyunderway.
Therearetoomanyindividualservicemenandwomentothankpersonally.
Indeed, in many cases, individual soldiers and Marines whom I watched
or with whom I spoke were unknown to me, even though they may have
provided me with important insights. In other cases, I cannot thank certain
individuals publicly here since it would undermine the anonymity which
I have sought to protect in the text. I have tried to thank them individually
through personal communications; I hope they know who they are and that
their absence from this list does not in any way reflect ingratitude on my
behalf. I would like to thank the following individuals and organizations for
their assistance without which this project would not have been possible.
While my own perspective will not accord at all points with the views of
these contributors, I hope that the analysis forwarded here is recognizable
to them and that, perhaps, the work is useful in illuminating their own
experiences. I am particularly grateful to: Neil Brown and A Company 5
Scots for their extraordinary Hibernian hospitality especially in Paris and to
Eugene Berger who assisted with translations in France. In Kandahar, I am
gratefultoNickCarterandDickieDavies,theCommanderandChiefofStaff
RegionalCommandSouth2009–10,respectively,forallowingmetotakeupa
position in their headquarters, and to Ewen McLay, J. D. Stevens, Cassie
Dunlap, Randy Brumit, Lee McCarthy, Guy Harrison, Keith Adams, and
Debi Lomax, who made that headquarters a good deal less depressing than
inrealityI,asacivilian,foundit.IhaveonlyfondmemoriesofthePrismCell’s
shack and its recurrently entertaining (but eventually removed) trip hazard;
Iwillneverlookatanexerciseballinquitethesamewayagain.Iamespecially
indebtedtoEwenMcLay’scontinuedsupportandadvice.
The Royal Marines have always been very supportive of my research and
it is not an exaggeration to say that without their help both in Britain
and the United States, much of the research for this project would
have never happened. I am particularly indebted to Ged Salzano and the
Commando Training Centre Royal Marines and, above all, the Platoon
