Evening star., 1943-07-05

| MoJoT ELIOT cAPIuInS
Human Factors Required
By Army in Action
By Maj. George Fielding Eliot.
(This Is the second OF series OF
articles on American problems OF lUar
organization and leadership
The organization of great nation
for war Is. primarily a problem of lead
ership. True leadership is something
more than the mere exercise Of the func-
ton of command The leader of free
men in war must prove his right to
command, by his ability, his loyalty and
his courage. This applies to corporal
leading squad, and it applies to the
commander in chief.
A corporal who is not loyal to his men,
who has not the ability to lead them and
who lacks the courage to make the right
decisions under every sort Of trying
condition, will not long remain a cor
poral. The judgment OF the private
soldiers under his charge Is even more
inexorable than the judgment of his
superiors.
Those are the basic truths Of leader
ship. The iron discipline of a Prussian
army, the spiritual discipline of an en-
peror- -worshiping Japan, may set aside
these principles in favor of blind obedi-
ence to the symbols of rank. With the
armies and the peoples of free nations
| it will never be so.
But personal leadership has long since
| ceased to be enough for the higher COM
mand OF the great armies of today No
| longer can general survey a battle
field from single hill top and direct
| the operations of his forces by what he
sees with his own eyes. Under modern
conditions. even regimental commanders
| can no longer do this, much less gen.
| erals of whatever degree
The higher commander must use the
eyes Of many others, to survey his bat
tie field; he must receive their reports
by wire or radio or messenger at central
headquarters; he must make and alter
his plans in accordance with the in
formation he receives and he must again
depend on his network of communica-
tions to convey his instructions to his
subordinate commanders, until they
get them down to the leaders Of the
platoons and the sections who are the
leaders in actual contact with the fight
ing soldier
1t is obvious that this multiplicity of
functions cannot be carried on bv
single brain. The actual exercise of high
command. the power Of crucial decision,
cannot be obstructed and confused by
the mass of detail which must be COM
pared. classified. evaluated and duly con-
sidered before the decision can be
reached. or being reached, before it can
be carried into execution.
In other words, the general who makes
the decision must have a staff to boil
down the information on which the de-
cision Is based into clear and simple
form, and to work out the details of
carrying his decision into effect after
he has reached it. Moreover, he must
have staff which will see to it that
he is informed of the means he has at
hand to do his job, and to keep replacing
these means as they are used up.
In these considerations lie the origins
of our General Staff system.
The General Staff of an Army in the
field, and each of the larger subdivisions
OF that Army tmuch as corps and di-
visions) consists of four sections: Person.
mel, supply, intelligence. operations. The
f1rst two are concerned with the means
by which the Army is to carry out its
mission. The second two are concerned
with the use of those means.
The personnel section deals with man.
| power. The supply section deals with
ammunition, food, clothing and trans
| portation. The intelligence section deals
with information Of the enemy. The
operations section deals with the move
ments and operations OF the Army, based
on that information, and making use of
the manpoWer and equipment available.
| The whole are co-ordinated and made
to work smoothly together by chief of
staH, who is the right-hand man and
chief assistant to the general in COM
mand.
The personal qualities of the general
! are still of vital importance. No mat
ter how good his staff, his is the re-
| sponsibility for the major decisions. His
are the qualities which will inspire his
| subordinates to do their best, or which
will fail to do so.
IT he is uncertain and vacillating.
his indecision will communicate itself
right down the line to the leaders Of
the smallest units. If he lacks moral
courage and leans on his staff for de-
cisions he ought to make. that fact is
soon known even to the private soldiers,
and their confidence soon vanishes. If.
on the other hand. he fails to allow
his subordinates sufficient freedom of
action within the scope of their proper
responsibilities. If he wastes his time in
supervising every little detail, his subor-
dlnate commanders soon become nervous
and hesitant because the loyalty they
give their leader is not given to them
in turn. Confusion and uncertainty soon
prevail throughout the command
In fact, one of the greatest and most
important qualities of leadership is the
ability to choose good subordinates, to
train them in their jobs, and to make
them work together as team. A Door
general can ruin a good staff; but a
poor staff cannot ruin a good general
for he will either make them measure
up to the standards he requires or he
will replace them with others who can
and will attain those standards.