My grandfather retired from the Army in 1962 after the Indo-China war.
A King’s commissioned officer , he was a very objective critic of the authoritarian style despite being a proud army man.
One book he quoted often from was “On the Psychology of Military Incompetence” by Norman F. Dixon.
It was first published only in 1976, as a set of psychological insights into military history.
It examines military disasters from the preceding 120 years, primarily focusing on British military failures.
The focus is on how the personality and psychological traits of military commanders contribute to military failures.
Numerous pertinent cases are evaluated :
-Crimean War blunders by Raglan
– Second Boer War failures by Buller
– World War I casualties under Haig
– World War II disasters like the fall of Singapore
It identifies several characteristics of incompetent military leaders, including:
– Rejection of contradictory information
– Fundamental conservatism
– Underestimating expertise
– Indecisiveness
– Obstinate persistence fed by ego and;
– Authoritarian personality traits
After this catalogue of traits, he addresses how such large and costly enterprises as armed forces can be put in the hands of such men.
Here he discerns a vicious circle: it is people of a certain type who are recruited and promoted, so others either do not apply or languish in insignificant positions.
Among characteristics of the British officer class in the period under examination are: a narrow social segment admitted, scorn of intellectual and artistic endeavour, subservience to tradition, and emphasis on virility.
This leads, in his view, to the prevalence of an authoritarian type, fawning to superiors and often harsh or uncaring to inferiors.
Such a commander therefore ignores people and facts which do not conform to his world view, learns little from experience and clings to external rules, applying them even when the situation demands other approaches (for example Haig sacrificing hundreds of thousands of men he ordered to walk through mud into German machine gun fire).
I remember my grandfather’s words often “A gentleman doesn’t hide behind paper when others are facing bullets”.
(Pics are circa 1941-50 as a young officer in the WW II and then in India.)