How were soldiers mentally prepared for combat in the 19th and 20th century? An attempt to look

Abstract

The author undertook the task of presenting the issue, how in various armies of the world soldiers were mentally and mentally prepared to fight in the past century. He focused his attention mainly on World War II, but he described examples from the Vietnam War or the Arab-Israeli wars. References were also made to the examples of wars conducted in the 19th century. He discussed the issues of ideological preparation and the role of patriotic education. He devoted a lot of attention to the problems of battlefield stress or the desertions of soldiers. He ignored the issue of desertions caused by political views, focusing only on escapes caused by the fear of death or disability. He considered the question of whether the soldier really wants to kill the enemy, or is he aiming at the enemy, wanting to kill him. He was also interested in the question of how soldiers react to the loss of a friend? Does he only follow the orders of his superiors? A separate issue, which the author devoted to, was the question of how soldiers react to the discovered crimes of the enemy, describing the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp by American soldiers. He also described the preparation of Special Operations Execitive soldiers and other elite formations, especially those operating in the underground, to fight during World War II. He discussed their preparation for their missions behind the front lines. He paid special attention to the physical and mental preparation of sharpshooters and snipers, presenting some of the most famous of them. He devoted a lot of attention to showing the role of the commander, from the lowest to the highest level of command, both on the examples of World War II and the and the Arab-Israeli wars. Finally, he assessed the impact of hostilities on the personal lives of soldiers, also after their end.