In message , Krztalizer
writes
Hold on a bit. Bravery is not a never-ending supply.
Agree, Walt. Bravery and, just as important, mental sharpness both are
exhaustible resources.
Look what happened to Guy Gibson - too many times to the well and ended up
killing his hapless "navigator" and himself. His "bravery" (or internal drive
to grapple with the enemy) was the primary reason both of these airmen died.
At the time of the dams raid Gibson was so exhausted and run-down that
he had a large carbuncle on his cheek that made it painful to do up his
oxygen mask.
From what I have read (I have no experience of combat) many writers have
said that every man has a given deposit of courage and endurance. When
the withdrawals exceed the deposit then that's it.
I read of one excellent navigator who, on his first mission over enemy
territory, clung to a spar in terror all the way there and all the way
back. He was removed immediately, of course, but it seems impossible to
predict any individual's reaction to danger.
The poor sod whom Art described was taken too far, but it was
unpredictable.
The top British nightfighter freely admitted he was shot down and captured
because he was mentally exhausted by too many operational sorties; he "spaced",
made a rookie mistake that nearly got him and his nav killed when they were
caught at low altitude and low airspeed by enemy fighters. (That same sort of
mistake got Duke and Driscoll shot down after the biggest day of their flying
careers, but for different reasons than the Brit nightfighter.)
Expecting men to face death daily over a period of years is not a way to find
out who is brave and who is not - its simply a way to expend them like
cartridges, or leave many of them as broken shadows for the rest of their
lives.
Yes, I saw a paratroop sergeant break down in tears on television once,
after describing his experiences in NI. A paratroop sergeant! The
toughest of the tough.
Mike
--
M.J.Powell
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