While you *know* morale is important, it's often covered in broad strokes, when, in reality,
morale — especially wartime morale — is quite a complex and interesting topic, and possibly the
most important factor in deciding the outcome of a war. In this video, we're going to discuss the
causes and effects of low and high morale, drawing examples from the Second World War.
So just what is morale? You know, it's actually quite difficult to define.
It isn't tangible like bullets and blood,
but many notable World War II-era figures have done a decent job putting it into words.
Veteran and historian Paul Fussell, for instance, defined morale as "Prevailing mood and spirit,
conducive to willing and dependable performance [...] and courageous, determined conduct despite
danger [...], based upon a conviction of being in the right and on the way to success
and upon faith in the cause [...] and in the leadership, usually connoting [...] a
confident aggressive, resolute [...] co-operation in a common effort [...]."
Respected war correspondent Ernie Pyle said, "I’ve been around war long enough
to know that nine-tenths of morale is pride in your outfit and confidence in your leaders and
fellow fighters," and, "A lot of people have morale confused with the desire to fight.
I don’t know of one soldier out of ten thousand who wants to fight."
Of course, morale isn't limited to the military, and civilian morale is just
as important for winning wars. At the end of the day, as sociologist Alexander H. Leighton put it,
"Morale is the capacity of a group [...] to pull together persistently and consistently
in pursuit of a common purpose." And a group can be anything, including an entire nation or even
an alliance of nations. We can also consider morale on an individual level, of course.
Though, just what are the causes and effects of low morale?
There are many factors which lead to low soldier morale, and they all interact with each other
in some way too. On an individual level, poor hygiene, unsuitable clothing, a lack of food,
and poor battlefield conditions are sure-fire ways to send a soldier's morale plummeting. No
one wants to be filthy, cold, and hungry, and when our basic physiological needs are denied,
we fall apart. Other important physiological factors that decrease morale include a lack
of camaraderie, a lack of credit, and a lack of pride in one's unit. If a soldier doesn't
care about the other soldiers in their unit, isn't being rewarded for their hard work and suffering,
and isn't proud to be in the unit, why would they want to fight and potentially die for it?
On a slightly grander scale, poor training and leadership are also express tickets to low morale,
as are poor rest, rotation, and replacement systems. If a soldier hasn't been trained
to recognise and improve low morale, or the officer in charge of them is unable to do this,
it makes sense that their morale will plummet. If a soldier can't get a moment's rest or sees
no end in sight, even if it's temporary, that can really take a toll on their morale and, of course,
add to their exhaustion, which only worsens morale. And we haven't even considered battlefield
outcomes and casualties yet. No one likes losing, and no one wants to watch their friends die,
nor sustain injuries themselves. Image this on a grander scale, say in World War II,
when hundreds of thousands of soldiers perished in single battles. Imagine how it would affect
your morale to lose your home city after fighting for it for months or even years.
Other important, more sinister causes to consider include demoralization
propaganda — meaning propaganda created by the enemy to drain a military force's morale.
So what exactly are the effects of low morale?
In the end, it boils down to poor unit cohesion, and losing lives and wars. Soldiers with low
morale are more inclined to disobey orders, self-wound or fake illnesses to escape the
battlefield, or straight-up desert. They are also more prone to exhaustion and, in turn,
breaking under the stress of combat. Exhausted soldiers are more likely to put
other soldiers' lives and the mission at risk.
Before we move on to civilian morale, the US Army Service Forces manual*,*
published in 1944, detailed its low morale indicators. These included:
Excessive AWOL or desertion cases
Excessive amount of company punishment
Inattention during training sessions
High venereal disease rates
Large number of courts martials
Large number of troop quarrels
Large number of transfer requests
Carelessness in dress, saluting, etc.
Carelessness with military equipment
Large number of malingerers
Slow response to commands
and high sick rates.
Back on the home front, civilian morale is very much influenced by the state of a war
and the husbands, fathers, sons, and brothers fighting in it. If soldier morale is low,
there's a good chance it will cripple morale back home. Additionally, a war can come home,
with civilian populations enduring stresses like blackouts, rationing, evacuation, and bombing,
to name a few. Clearly, these sorts of things have a negative impact on civilian wartime morale.
But why is it important?
To put it simply, civilians can be trained to become soldiers, and civilian production sustains
the war. Without civilian labour, especially in munitions productions, a military starves,
and so does a wartime economy. Also, low morale can lead to social upheaval and potentially reduce
the effectiveness of home defence, especially in the face of invasion and occupation.
It could be said that the 1940 Fall of France was a manifestation of low morale, for example.
As we've discussed in a previous video, not every French soldier's spirit was broken by the German
blitzkrieg, though, indeed, morale — coupled with poor training and leadership, which are causes
of low morale — was a deciding factor in this battle. French military doctrine and leadership
were simply outplayed by the lightning-quick Germans, and the defeatist attitudes all
throughout the country didn't help either. The French people were politically divided,
and French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud gave up before the battle was over. On the 15th of May, he
called Winston Churchill and said, "We have been defeated. We are beaten; we have lost the battle."
, not every French soldier's spirit was broken by the German blitzkrieg, though,
indeed, morale — coupled with poor training and leadership, which are causes of low morale — was a
deciding factor in this battle. French military doctrine and leadership were simply outplayed by
the lightning-quick Germans, and the defeatist attitudes all throughout the country didn't
help either. The French people were politically divided, and French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud
gave up before the battle was over. On the 15th of May, he called Winston Churchill and
said, "We have been defeated. We are beaten; we have lost the battle."
So what about high morale? In many ways,
its causes and effects are the opposites of the causes and effects of low morale.
To reiterate, good hygiene, suitable clothing, plenty of food, and favourable battlefield
conditions all boost a soldier's morale, as do camaraderie and recognition of hard work and
bravery. Soldiers taught about the importance of morale can recognise and cope with low
morale better, and properly trained officers can effectively bolster the morale of the men under
their charge. The occasional break from combat can work wonders too. As for losing battles and taking
casualties, these are sometimes just the realities of war, but soldiers whose morale is higher before
these events occur may be able to cope with them better. Just as a military can cripple another
military's morale with propaganda, so too can they boost their own, and there is also something
to be said for fighting on one's home soil — it tends to be a powerful motivator in itself.
As for the civilian population, believing your troops are winning battles is a huge
morale-booster. I say "believing" because what we hear isn't necessarily true. What
happens on the battlefield sometimes stays on the battlefield, and sometimes it's flipped on it's
head — meaning that, via propaganda, civilians may not always get an accurate picture of a war,
which may be for the better. Either way, the media is a vector for morale, and the speeches of world
leaders can have a profound effect on the civilian population. Not having to ration your food and
resources or flee your home (and not getting bombed) are pretty good morale-boosters too.
A great example of a specific battle which boosted Allied military morale is the Second Battle of
El Alamein. While the Allies had taken some victories in this time, their last major victory
before the late-1942 Battle of El Alamein was in Operation Crusader the year before. Late in 1942,
Germany had just taken Greece, and Japan had just taken Singapore, leaving British morale,
especially, at an all-time low. But in Alamein, Britain and her Commonwealth allies banded
together and achieved a decisive victory over Rommel's Afrika Korps and the Italians.
In this battle, the Allies boasted air superiority, to which Montgomery attributed
a high morale throughout the battle, stating, "[...] The sight and sound of our [...] air
forces operating against the enemy have [great moral effect] on our [...] troops." Montgomery
also deemed morale "the most important single factor in war."][1] Also, Winston Churchill said,
"Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat."
An example of a civilian population which maintained a reasonably high morale throughout
World War II is that of Britain. This was due largely to their strong, charismatic Prime
Minister, effective morale campaigns, and the fact the Germans brought the fight to Britain.
Fighting over the skies of their own cities strengthened British resolve, and its pilots,
especially, attainted celebrity status, becoming figures behind which the British people could
rally. In reality, however, the British were in debt to the Americans after the war,
and their production pales before the Yanks'. On the US, as we've said in a previous video,
their home front propaganda was perhaps the best in the war, vastly improving civilian morale.
, their home front propaganda was perhaps the best in the war, vastly improving civilian morale.