The other side
Philip Mason The Face of Battle John Keegari (Jonathan Cape £6.50) It would be a pity if this book were labelled 'military history 'and read only by milirarY historians. It raises issues that concern Or one who takes an interest in the fate of his children. John Keegan is, it is true, a militarY historian but not all of his profession have amind so questioning about the human Pr!' dicament. Battle, he insists, aims at the disintegration of human groups and its studY IS thus a matter for the sociologist as well as dlef psychologist—but it must not be drained d. life by the methods of the laboratory ; it real'Y concerns all aspects of human behaviour.. The first question he asks is what battle Is like for the man in the thick of it. Oat, makes him go on fighting—if he does go on; When is it more dangerous to run V' aY • Why does he obey orders? Keegan has the sympathy and intelligence to see that these are not questions to which there can be simple answers. He attempts to answer the by looking at three land battles, Agillecibet' Waterloo and the Somme, with more anal' tion to the point of view of the bowinari11er the rifleman than to that of the general. deploys a mass of vivid detail and has ff difficulty in convincing his reader that batt'i always much nastier and messier than in°s writers have allowed civilians to know, 111 got worse with the centuries. The strain do combat has become such that men beg° 1, deteriorate, not only as men in the sense, but as soldiers, after quite short spell; Actual breakdown only began to be reedr,„ ed in World War I; it becomes increasing"c frequent. Does it not seem probable that th strain of battle—between industrial powers: —we are not talking about intermitten: guerrilla activities—will become so intdler able that war will cease to be possible? Let me add some questions that this e%c cellent book raises in my mind. Armies 11.3v,, generally been a reflection of the sociej`l, they represent—feudal, aristocratic, ega ;5 tarian or whatever it may be. If civil hieZe based on consultation and consent, can army be expected to obey orders witlib1ij0. question ? It it does, will it not be a danger.0 the state? If it does not, will it be any use„ris, battle? Does not the traditional idea of r cipline need re-thinking? And in this matted of the strain of battle, does not the advalltafo now lie with the people for whom life is s.'1,1 cheap, who are not yet drenched with asPirPa and anaesthetics and who take pain ai,sat matter of course, whose soldiers know why they will be shot if they disobey ? Keegan is a civilised man; battle, he thin'ut may be obsolete. Perhaps it is for u.s---b what about the other side of the hill ?
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