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In the last ditch, when the ‘Gatling’s jammed and the Colonel dead’, the soldier will bethinking more of his comrades in his section or platoon than of ‘The Cause’, Democracy,Queen and Country…59It is with the troops beside them in battle that a soldier’s personal honour andsurvival ultimately rest. As some have noted, however, strong small-group cohesioncould, in some cases, undermine the will to fight.60 Esprit de corps, the ‘feelingsof pride, unity of purpose, and adherence to an ideal represented by the unit’, wasthe way in which small group-solidarity was linked to the attainment of an army’shigher goals.61 Formal acknowledgement of a unit’s achievements in battle helpedfoster this sense of purpose—even one small triumph could be crucial.62Professionally competent leadership was perhaps the critical factor for maintainingmorale. Small-group cohesion was the province of non-commissionedand junior officers, whilst battalion esprit de corps was influenced primarily bythe CO and his company commanders. Such was the power of a CO’s influencethat it was ‘almost frightening to see how the character of a Commanding Officercan be reflected in his battalion’.63 An Australian operational report from 1945noted ‘That the only time the soldier becomes so exhausted as to feel incapable offurther action is when the officer in command succumbs to fatigue’.64 Sometimesthe death of a particularly well-loved leader could be problematic.65 A criticalleadership function in combat was monitoring battle fatigue, and managing thefinite stock of courage within units.66 This could only be accomplished by leaders,particularly officers, being forward with the troops. Leadership was also important59 F.M. Richardson, Fighting Spirit: A Study of the Psychological Factors in War, LeoCooper, London, 1978, p. 12.60 Simon Wessely, ‘Twentieth-Century Theories on Combat Motivation and Breakdown’,Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 41, no. 2, 2006, p. 281.61 Anthony Kellett, ‘Combat Motivation’, in Gregory Belenky (ed.), Contemporary Studiesin Combat Psychiatry, Greenwood Press, New York, 1987, p. 208.62 Marshall, Men Against Fire, pp. 120–2.63 Baynes, Morale, p. 110.64 Margaret Barter, Far Above Battle: The Experience and Memory of Australian Soldiersin War 1939–1945, Allen&Unwin, Sydney, 1994, p. 243.65 Marshall, Men Against Fire, p. 193.66 Hew Strachan, ‘Training, Morale and Modern War’, Journal of Contemporary History,vol. 41, no. 2, 2006, pp. 222–3.12 — A tale of three battalions