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Combat Morale and Battle FatigueBefore examining the fortunes of the 7th Brigade’s battalions on Bougainville itis necessary to consider the nature of combat and the maintenance of moraleand fighting effectiveness whilst soldiers are engaged in it. John Keegan wrotethat battle is fundamentally aimed at the disintegration of human groups.47 Oneobserver of soldiers in combat wrote that ‘A state of tension and anxiety is soprevalent in the front lines that it must be regarded as a normal reaction in thisgrossly abnormal situation’.48 The post–World War II Stouffer study listed twelvepotential sources of combat stress; these include fear of death and maiming,extreme physical discomfort and fatigue, loss of comrades, exposure to the sightand sound of wounded and dying men and continual uncertainty and ‘lack ofcognitive orientation’.49 The same study noted that jungle warfare in the Pacificprovided particular stresses. ‘The combination of relative isolation, confusionand incessant danger – even far behind the most advanced positions – imposeda peculiarly insidious strain upon morale’.50 In addition, the effects of tropicalclimate and disease had particularly pronounced effects on physical conditioning.What ultimately kept men functioning under such conditions was courage. LordMoran wrote:Courage is will-power, whereof no man has an unlimited stock; and when in war it isused up, he is finished. A man’s courage is his capital and he is always spending. Thecall on the bank may be only the daily drain of the front line or it may be a sudden draftwhich threatens to close the account.51the Front Line, p. 61. The title of the 61st Battalion’s history also indicates that theunit became entitled to the AIF designation sometime before its disbandment. JamesWatt, History of the 61st Infantry Battalion (AIF): Queensland Cameron Highlanders,1938–1945, Australian Military History Publications, Loftus, 2001.47 John Keegan, The Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo and the Somme,Pimlico, London, 1991, p. 298.48 American doctor quoted in John Ellis, The Sharp End: The Fighting Man in World WarII, Pimlico, London, 1993, p. 248.49 Samuel A. Stouffer, et al, The American Soldier: Combat and its Aftermath, PrincetonUniversity Press, Princeton, 1949, p. 77.50 Stouffer, The American Solider, p. 67.51 Lord Moran, The Anatomy of Courage, Constable, London, 1966, p. xvi.10 — A tale of three battalions