Abstract
The Combat Soldier is a fascinating glimpse into the behaviour of men and women in warfare. Each chapter explores a central combat-related theme such as cohesion, modern tactics, battle drills, training, professionalism and female soldiers. Anthony King follows the combat soldier from the horrors of trench warfare in the First World War to the intense fighting of the Korean and Vietnam wars and beyond to the recent war in Afghanistan. King is sensitive to the dangers and deprivations of soldiers, but does not shirk from challenging the popular representation that ‘war is hell’ (p. 7.). War may be an asocial or antisocial phenomenon, he argues, but combat can also be viewed as a ‘social activity’ (p. 8). King's detailed analysis of how sections, platoons, companies and battalions (the units into which armies are organised) function in war is aimed at contributing to the literature on the sociology of the armed forces (p. 22). As he argues, ‘political motivation was manifestly important to citizen soldiers in the Twentieth Century as citizens of a state’ (p. 86), a covenant that sees citizens called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice. This proposition will not be lost on those who are familiar with the seminal work of Samuel P. Huntingdon.
King draws some surprising conclusions. The poor performance of frontline infantry troops is attributable to different explanations, ranging from poor leadership to the unfamiliarity of best practice (or ‘doctrine’ in military parlance [p. 163]), which can be fatal. Thus we find British soldiers landing in Normandy on 6 June 1944 reluctant to kill – with the exception, notes King, of a certain Sergeant Major Hollis who singlehandedly charged enemy positions and won himself a Victoria Cross – and the lacklustre performance of 7th Armoured Division in Normandy, reinforcing the point that arrogance (p. 84), as much as jingoism and patriotism, can quickly open the door to failure. But it is King's presentation of the rise of professionalism, which refers ‘above all to a complex of competence and a distinctive corporate identity which binds the members of the military together, committing them mutually to their duties’, where this book adds real value (p. 443). King's indebtedness to the work of Durkheim's theories on the ‘sociology of knowledge’ is obvious here.
This book will appeal to students of military history, sociology and politics. It is a fine example of what serious empirical research and theoretical reflection can produce when applied to a misunderstood activity.