Topic: Drill and Training
Developing the Soldierly Spirit
Infantry Training (4–Company Organization), London, 1914
The objects in view in developing a soldierly spirit are to help the soldier:—
- to bear fatigue, privation, and danger cheerfully;
- to imbue him with a sense of honour;
- to give him confidence in his superiors and comrades;
- to increase his powers of initiative, of self-confidence, and of self-restraint;
- to train him to obey orders, or
- to act in the absence of orders for the advantage of his regiment under all conditions;
- to produce such a high degree of courage and disregard of self, that in the stress of battle he will use his brains and his weapons coolly and to the best advantage is to impress upon him that, so long as he is physically capable of fighting, surrender to the enemy is a disgraceful act; and finally,
- to teach him how to act in combination with his comrades in order to defeat the enemy.
As soon as the recruit joins he should be brought under influences which will tend to produce and increase such a spirit, and it is the duty of all officers and non-commissioned officers to assist in the attainment of this object by their conversation and example.
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