september - october - Fort Sill

COMPARISONS, AGAIN
BY CAPTAIN GEORGE P. WINTON, F.A.
IT IS not unusual to encounter the assertion that soldiers suffer from a
peculiar mental state known as the military mind. This condition or point of
view is a favorite target for civilians writing on military subjects. Generally
their arguments come to this: that officers steeped in the traditions of the
Army and schooled in its thought are incapable of proper judgment in the
very elements of the profession—arms and the use of weapons. Instances
are given of the British Generals' insistence on the use of shrapnel against
entrenched troops, of their reluctance in using tanks, of their repeated use
of the same type of offensive which had time after time proved inadequate
and cruelly costly in casualties.
Probably there is a certain amount of truth in the contention that there is
stubborness in the mental attitude of some officers on the questions that
vitally concern the Service. Tractor motor power for artillery is a case in
point. Discussion of the question is difficult, and comparison of animal and
mechanical motive power is not easy, for the reason that proponents and
opponents of each type have different conceptions of the abilities and
limitations of each kind. It is not necessarily the military mind at work; but
a general desire to see the Army follow no unwise policy.
However, without forgetting the fine traditions and magnificent
achievements of horse-drawn artillery in the past, many officers are
convinced that the motor artillery will be responsible for the achievements
in the future.
The "next war," that strange conflict, that dark time for which the army
exists, is in the future. Its place and its nature are unknown and it is only in
the light of experience in past wars and by observing the rate of invention
in weapons that preparation can be made for it. Generalities are of little
value in this preparation, yet many things can be stated only in general
terms. One of these is the commonplace, "we live in a motor age." Though
wholly agreeing in this, the writer must confess that he is no motor expert
and that the ideas he has were forced on him by the pressure of events that
he experienced with his battery in the late war.
This particular battery was organized after the outbreak of the war
largely from recruits, yet with a considerable number of non-coms from
the old Regular Army. After a short period of training the battery was
sent to France as a unit of the Artillery of the 3rd Division, served
throughout the campaigns in this division and went with it to Germany
as part of the occupation forces, where it underwent
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