Sermon

In the nightmare retreat of the British Army across France and the howling hell of Dunkirk, the U.S. Army found a pregnant sermon for its officers to ponder. For the past month the Army has heard that sermon delivered by a man who had come through the awful works and could tell how. Pink-cheeked, 45-year-old British Brigadier Thomas Needham Furnival Wilson, D.S.O., M.C., returned to Washington last week (and set off forthwith for the Carolina maneuvers) after a 30-day lecture tour in U.S. Army posts. Total of his officer audiences: close to 10,000.

Brigadier Wilson was in command of a brigade of veterans when the Allied Army began to disintegrate before the Germans.

His outfit did not disintegrate. By the time he had got it to the beach to cover the embarkation (and his orderly was brewing a cup of tea in a nearby shed) its casualties were heavy. When it shoved off, still a unit, despite 30-40% casualties, there was only one explanation for its performance: high morale, thorough training.

Brigadier Wilson saw plenty of dive-bombing from the wrong end. He gave U.S. officers words of cheer about what it is like to be dive-bombed. The effect, he thinks, is 90% psychological. If the morale of the bombed outfit is high--as his was--the men will grin & bear it. But he saw many a French driver jump from his truck and run into the woods when the Stukas came over--leaving a truck to block traffic or crack up on the roadside.

Road discipline, subject of most U.S.maneuver critiques, Brigadier Wilson found vital beyond anything atextbook could say. His own brigade, always spaced out ten vehicles tothe mile, suffered only eleven casualties in a day of dive-bombing between Lille and Brussels. Other outfits, jammed up on the roads, suffered bitterly.

The lesson Brigadier Wilson learned and preaches is that this war is different from the war he fought in 23 years ago. This time there is a new accent on plenitude of equipment (which the B.E.F. in World War II did not have). But to Soldier Wilson the heaviest accent is still where it always was: on high morale and painstaking training. With these two weapons, a well-equipped outfit has little to worry about, come Stukas or high water.

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