311 – Training is like actual combat, actual combat is like training (10)
I, Peter Yeager, had two main thoughts as I finished this training.
‘Anxiety and its own satisfaction.’
The reason I was somewhat satisfied was that after the battle, the officers of the 18th Division, including the 18th Division Commander, gave the best instructions they could in an unfavorable situation, except for the final assault of archers and knights.
No matter how long their military experience was and how many battles they had fought in, the division’s condition must have been at its worst as they had only eaten enough to not die over the three days before arriving at the Manfell Plain.
When people are put in a bad situation and think that they have to somehow escape the crisis, they end up thinking about the displeasure that has fallen on their feet, making it difficult to make decisions from a macroscopic perspective.
It is as if a person who has a large amount of debt jumps into gambling or engages in a multi-level scam hoping to repay the money in a short period of time.
However, the 18th Division commander realized that his unit was no longer able to win when it was deprived of supplies, and after assessing the unit’s capabilities, the goal of the battle was to reduce the number of 7th Division soldiers as much as possible.
The officers who were given operational orders did not do anything unreasonable and fought as best they could under the given circumstances, meaning that they also clearly possessed the most important ability as officers: on-site judgment.
“If I didn’t have this ability, I would have asked that all officers above lieutenant colonel and above be given the same position during the next personnel evaluation. My father-in-law is my enemy and I am the leader, so there is nothing I cannot do. However.”
The reason for the anxiety is that although he made the best judgment on the battlefield, the problem was that scouts were sent around at night during the march, making it easy to estimate the location of the supply unit and the division’s main unit.
As soon as he started marching with the motivation of an officer, he did unnecessary things such as lowering the soldiers’ physical strength by sending them on night reconnaissance.
This is because they are training, but even in actual combat, they are so motivated that they can do unimaginable and crazy things.
I had a headache so I held my head for a moment.
“If those bastards are put into actual combat, I think they will follow Captain ‘Patton’. “f*ck, it’s scary to even think about it.”
Captain Patton knew very well the limitations of his soldiers, so he pushed them just to the limits so that his soldiers could endure.
If those guys follow Captain Patton, they will most likely lose 20% of their troops during the march through ‘desertion’ or ‘exhaustion and leaving the unit.’
When I was wondering what to do with these guys.
“Captain Jaeger, 18th Division Commander Major General Müller von Hausen and six others request a meeting.”
“I ask you to come in, and you can have some beer and some meat and rest, Adjutant. “I won’t be looking for you today, so rest easy and come back tomorrow.”
I haven’t tried it, but according to Laura, there’s nothing more difficult than being an exclusive adjutant, so I guess we should be considerate of this.
Seeing the dark circles under the eyes of the major, who is two years younger than me, I think I should at least give him a two-week long vacation next week.
When the adjutant went out with a look of surprise, six people, including Major General Hausen, came in and saluted while maintaining a fixed posture at right angles.
“Loyalty! 18Th Division Commander Major General Müller von Hausen!”
“……Loyalty.”
Instead of getting angry as soon as I saw their faces, I decided to show them something more and spoke seriously.
“Commander Bon is very disappointed with this training. No, honestly, as the commander of the Faroesia area army, I cannot help but feel despair.”
A single word of ‘disappointment’ from a four-star general has the power to make military life extremely difficult for thousands of people, but what about using the word ‘despair’ even more than that?
I am issuing a sentence to the officers belonging to the 18th Division to commit an unimaginable level of tragedy.
The faces of the 18th division commander, deputy division commander, chief of staff, and operational staff who heard my words turned white as if they had seen a ghost.
“18Th Division Commander, what are your grades at Staff College?”
In normal times, asking these questions among officers is a provocation on the same level as asking for a fight, but this is an exception in a state of death like now.
So, Director Hausen’s pupils began to tremble as he imagined what would happen in the future.
“Graduated at the top of the class from the 125th class of the General Staff College.”
“Does a person who graduated at the top of his class do reconnaissance like that? Deployment of escort troops, strict night-time vigilance, and establishment of discipline. Even if these things are done properly, why on earth do they send out reconnaissance teams at night and openly reveal the location of the unit? Because of this, the secret code was leaked to the sergeant of our 7th Division. Even when I read the reports sent by the controllers, there was no meaningful information gained from night reconnaissance.”
I rested my chin on one hand and looked at the division commander, who finally began to break out in a cold sweat like a waterfall.
“According to the words of the battalion commander who succeeded in the surprise attack, he said that if the personnel assigned to night reconnaissance had been used as guards, he would have just gone back. But you ordered the damn night reconnaissance, which the textbook says was meaningless, and lost the supply. Thanks to this, the soldiers had to experience hell for three days. If I hadn’t made the controllers drink salt water, many of them would have died from exhaustion. “Do you have any excuse for this?”
Through the mock battle, it was revealed that the 18th Division had both good and bad points, and the role His Majesty has given me now is to rewrite the Faroesia area army.
And objectively speaking, it would be more beneficial for the entire defense force to give Major General Hausen another chance.
If that man saves his life once when his position is in danger of being lost and runs his unit to death, other guys will be stimulated by that sight.
No matter which unit commander you are assigned to, being as lenient as possible in the beginning will help you take control of the unit.
Ah, but in this situation, if you are a person who tries to make excuses and even blame others, there is no reason to change it, so I will tell your Majesty or the Chief of Staff and have you discharged.
After hearing my words, Hausen lowered his head and said.
“No, no. As the captain said, there was virtually no meaningful information gained from reconnaissance at night, and he only made his men suffer for no reason. And if it had been a real battle and not a mock battle, there is a possibility that my soldiers would have been wiped out while marching, so what excuse can I make?”
All humans make mistakes or mistakes.
And from there, they are divided into those who make progress and those who are incompetent who remain in the same position, and the criteria are ‘whether they reflect on their mistakes’ and ‘whether they make excuses.’
People who thoroughly reflect and give up making excuses admit that everything is their fault, take responsibility, and try to improve, but people who make excuses keep repeating the same thing even if they are given another chance.
So, I asked that man to give him another chance, as I had already thought of.
“Apart from failing to protect supplies, they only chose the best option when engaging the 7th Division. Not only did they recognize the reality that it would be difficult to win the battle, but they also tried to reduce the number of troops of the 7th Guards Division in any way possible. “Why did you do that?”
“Although it was just a training exercise, the orders given to me and the 18th Division were to engage the 7th Division. As a division commander, when I looked at the situation of my unit, I judged that it was already difficult to win against the enemy. “The soldiers were exhausted due to my mistakes, and their physical strength was low, so looking at it coldly, I thought it was impossible to achieve victory.”
I smiled and said that I was interested in those words.
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“However, according to military law, avoidance of engagement is impossible, so the conclusion reached when searching for the optimal goal was to reduce the strength of the 7th Division by at least one more person.”
“We made a mistake that resulted in a loss of supply, but instead of being frustrated by that mistake, we tried to respond with the best instructions available. This is great. So let’s do it this way.”
I showed Major General Hausen and his staff the completely anonymous training evaluations of the controllers and the enemy force evaluations I had written on the desk.
When we started reading it, everyone’s hands were shaking, and later, men in their 50s even said in despair, saying, ‘My military service is over…’
And I asked after receiving the evaluation document back.
“If this is submitted like this, your personnel evaluation will result in lower grades from upper, middle, and lower, and I believe you know full well that a warrant officer will lose his position after being lowered once, or it will become very difficult for him to be promoted.”
The reason why promotion above the rank of lieutenant general is so tight is because all nobles in the empire tend to prefer soldiers instead of administrators, there are virtually no people who want to be discharged in the middle, and there are only a few positions, so competition is very intense.
If there are roughly 100 captains, only about 10 will be promoted to colonel, so that’s all.
However, unlike in Korea, if you don’t have any stars, you become a neighborhood guy once you get into society, here, even if you become a major, you can become a figure of influence in a small local town.
Once you reach the rank of colonel, unless you are in Reichburg or a major city, not only commoners but also lower-ranking nobles will bow to you when you walk down the street.
Every time you are promoted to one level, the treatment you receive in society is completely different, so you have no choice but to risk your life to get promoted.
I tore up the evaluations I wrote, put the evaluations written by other controllers in a wooden box, and locked it with a padlock.
“But I believe. “You made a mistake this time, and you can do really well next time.”
Those who escaped the risk of being discharged without being promoted responded to my last words with loud voices.
“Yes, it is! “You can do it!”
“I will do really well!”
“This will never happen again!”
Seeing their reaction, I waved my hand at them and said.
“After clearing the battlefield and returning to the main unit, the soldiers will take a one-week vacation in four shifts. The officers must thoroughly analyze the reasons for their defeat and write a thesis-level report. Additionally, for units above battalion level, an additional analysis report must be prepared at the battalion level and sent to the Staff College. As soon as that is completed, the 7th Division troops will be dispatched and there will be combat power improvement training, so anyone under the age of 50 must participate.”
I feel pity for the 18th Division, which will now write reports and undergo hellish guerrilla training.
But there is nothing we can do because it is better than having yourself and your soldiers die when an actual battle occurs.
And for a month, I thought hard about how to turn these guys into elites at the 7th division level.