Re: [GZG] Question: small-arms tech and troop quality....

On Sat, Dec 13, 2008 at 12:30 PM, Roger Burton West
<roger@firedrake.org> wrote:

> On Sat, Dec 13, 2008 at 12:10:09PM -0600, John Atkinson wrote:
>
>>Yes, I suppose so.  Troop quality should be the driving factor, as it
>>is with SGII.  After all, you can take the best rifle in the realms of
>>human imagination, and unless it is completely computer-controlled,
>>the single most important factor that controls whether or not you can
>>hit the target is the skill of the user.  Give me one kid with a
>>bolt-action rifle who has been shooting rabbits since before puberty
>>over a dozen conscripts with AK-47s and ten minutes worth of
>>instruction on how not to kill themselves with them.
>
> See also those studies that try to work out what percentage of
soldiers
> in WWII ever actually fired their weapons - I think it was somewhere
> down in the single digits for the riflemen. (This is less true now,
for
> a variety of reasons, and I don't suppose all of them are known yet...
> but even now I'm sure there's a certain amount of reluctance to fire.)

Those studies come under a great deal of question for shoddy
methodology.  However, the problem was real.

Most of the problem comes from inadequate training--humans are by
nature reluctant to commit direct violence against each other except
when under the influence of extreme emotion.

You can be trained out of this reluctance, but we didn't know HOW to
do that until after Korea.  Prior to WWI, the way to deal with that
problem was iron-clad drill and linear warfare.  In modern warfare,
you don't have everyone operating under the eye of their officers,
sergeants, and comrades at all times.  When you do, as in machine gun
crews, this reluctance was easily overcome.  Modern training methods
are effective, but at a cost to mental health that goes beyond the
scope of a wargame.

John
-- 
"Thousands of Sarmatians, Thousands of Franks, we've slain them again
and again.  We're looking for thousands of Persians."
--Vita Aureliani

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