Tomorrow’s Soldiers

by Hans Hubmann

First published in Signal, No. 4, 1944.

Translated by Thomas J. McGuirl

Anyone interested in military training in Germany today will come upon some rather interesting photographs. One such picture reveals many generals listening attentively to the explanations of another general. These high-ranking officers appear to be at school. This is correct. They have been assembled in order that new information may be learned.

Another photo shows newly mobi­li­zed civilians marching to their barracks. They are called to “the school of War.” These are adults but they still have some­thing to learn. Thus the common thread of both these photos: The Reve­la­tion of Germany’s Military Secret. In order that tomorrow’s soldier be better trained, his officers continue to study cease­lessly. For each contingent of civi­li­ans who arrive at the training barracks, the combat units at the front send back numerous officers of all ranks. Their most recent combat experiences, new methods, etc., are intensely discussed, and, when they have been assimilated, the training of the young conscripts be­gins.

Inversely, when, at the end of their in­struction, the young soldiers go to the front, they are accompanied by their camp commandant whose purpose it is to observe how closely their training cor­re­sponds to combat condi­tions. Indeed, there is here a fundamental method of mili­tary training which has evolved slowly and subtly over the years. All the specialties which surpass theory but which can only be understood after hav­ing internalized the aforementioned theo­ries, are in a continual state of evolu­tion.

The more difficult the war, the richer in finesse the German military training be­comes, and this is all to the good be­cause Germany opposes the masses of the enemy with the individuality of its soldiers. Germany desires to spare her sol­diers. One is most astonished to dis­cover that the young German soldier in this fifth year of war must be judged fully trained by his superiors before being sent to the front.

In 1939 at the beginning of the Polish Campaign, the commandant of a train­ing school was sent to compare the training regimen with the troops per­for­mance in a combat situation. The gen­eral, to whose staff he was attached, told him: “For all the good it will do! The troops fight the way the enemy tells them to.” Skeptical and mocking words it would seem. Not entirely true, however not entirely without truth. The general gave valuable advice to take into ac­count of the psychology of the enemy, and not only his psychology but also his weapons. One may guess just how much the German soldier has learned in both of these domains in the course of five years of war, in addition to which basic training has become more compli­cated and refined.

One example from the beginning should suffice to illustrate this point. In his speech to the Reichstag sum­mariz­ing the Polish Campaign, Adolf Hitler cited the example of “Territorials” (Land­wehr) who, in a very ex­tended sector had repulsed all Polish breakthrough at­tempts in the course of several days. At the com­mence­ment of hostilities these heroes had gone to the front directly from their places of work without re­ceiv­ing any refresher training. They had only their bravery and their experience in World War I to take the place of the know­ledge of modern military science.

It is experiences such as these from which the Ger­man people derive their un­shakable confidence in their military power. The training of the younger con­scripts who were since mobilized has been based on completely dif­ferent prin­ciples.

Today a German training camp re­sembles more a modern university than a barracks of the past century. Such a fact has its roots in the character of the German people and its daily life. The re­cruits who arrive daily for military train­ing, the young as well as those older, have already received physical educa­tion. In Germany, in effect, all male citi­zens within the age limits may be eligible for pre-military training supervised by the S.A. or the regular armed forces (Wehr­macht). There, they ac­quire the military principles and physical qualities of a soldier. The award of the sport badge (the so-called S.A. Wehrabzeichen) is their highest award. In this fifth year of war, scarcely five per cent of the German men are ineligible for military service. For the youth, the percentage is lower still—thanks to the high place that physical education occupies, and also to their paramilitary training in the Hitler Youth. Their duty in the labor service and modern education in general rounds this out.

Thus, in a German barracks, phy­sical education is not only quicker than in other lands, but it is directed from the beginning towards its true objective. The reader no doubt suspects that this is not exclusively infantry train­ing or muscle toning. The principle goal is the most rapid assimilation of urban and rural ele­ments. The urbanite must become a hunter and child of nature, while the pea­sant must acclimatize himself to city life. These two characters must merge to create the modern combat sol­dier. The ideal German soldier is the energetic man, toughened by open-air life and endowed with a lively and supple intelligence, physical culture, primary school, and an advanced technology are the natural basis for this ideal type.

Conditions are also as favorable as possible, never­theless, training requires much time. It’s nearly impos­sible to indi­cate the exact number. The training of spe­cialist troops demands two years. These, however, are exceptions, even in normal units there are weapons whose effectiveness requires at least eight months training. These long training periods, although not general, may appear extraordinary to our readers; one might suppose that certain specialist units require men experienced in similar occupations in civilian life. The combat engineers, for example, would choose masons, carpenters or lock­smiths. But this is not the German custom.

Taking as an example, in the com­bat engineers we find side by side the pianist, the blacksmith, the uni­versity pro­fessor and the factory worker. Before their mobilization, the majority of these men were no doubt ignorant about such subjects as bridge building, laying or re­moving mines, construction of field forti­fications or the destruction of said works in an assault. They were astonished when told they were chosen especially for their new vocation by the repre­sen­tative officer at their in­duction. This may seem curious but it is only modern medi­cal science joined to old soldierly ex­peri­ence, and in the majority of cases the choices prove excellent. The new re­cruits gain the required skills with an aston­ishing rapidity in the arm which doctor and officer have chosen for them.

This old method has proven itself over and over. However, the time re­quired and the most effective use of that time are of primary importance.

Germany meets both of these re­quirements. This is fortunate, for without them she could not continue the fight.

Her adversaries are masses plus tech­nology. The mathematics of it are of horrible simplicity. In February 1940, the American periodical Fortune wrote of ten million unemployed in the U.S.A.: “To­day, most of these jobless are sub­si­di­zed by the government. The U.S. eco­nomy has shown itself able to make great profits without employing these jobless men. It is also a fact that from an economic point of view, they have no raison d’être. Who cares about them?”

But, Germany is a populist state. It must take account of each of its sons. It finds itself surrounded by immense masses of disinherited Americans and Rus­sians. Immense armies of those, who, from the moment of mobilization have been condemned to death by their countries because they have no reason for being. Each soldier in this army of robots is nothing but a living cartridge, destined to be fired at the German soldier and his European comrades. In training its troops in this fifth year of the war, Germany must take account of the fact more than in previous wars where European fought European of the same racial stock and where gang­ster­ism was not yet the military ideal. Ger­many must oppose these robot masses with prudence and cold blood. To these requirements must be joined a know­ledge of the technological possibilities of the enemy. This takes time.

Without worrying about “the enemy at the gates,” as Schiller said, Germany devotes time to the training of its recruits and in so doing, strengthens its reserves of time.

You might object that time is not a commodity which one stores, but in this case, in the course of the last five years, Germany has been careful to train such a large number of recruits that a large margin exists between the demands for reinforcements and the manpower re­serves who find themselves at home. This margin is the “time provision”—from which our young recruits may profit at their ease.

Indeed, the soldier of tomorrow pre­sents several new traits. They have been imposed on him by his adversary, and the best means to combat him, but the soldier of tomorrow bears the in­destructible mark of the ancient qualities of the German soldier. The principle is his offensive spirit which manifests itself even in defensive actions which he con­ducts with the courage of an offensive action.

The best training remains that which our enemies have not considered, but which is of primary importance in de­velop­ing the positive qualities proper to the fighting soldiers. These qualities are, for the German soldier, his bravery and his spirit of the offensive.

The most recent offensive units of the German forces, the parachute troops and motorized infantry, are based en­tirely on the value of the individual sol­dier. The actions of the squad develop from the base of the position won by the individual; the actions of the platoon on that of the squad, and so on. The stupe­fication of the English on Leros, who only discovered after their capitulation that they were facing only a small num­ber of Germans, is the result of this ori­ginal method. The enemy, with his masses, cannot oppose the spirit of a strong and ancient race. Tomorrow’s fight­ing men continue to give striking proof of this method which will prove fatal to the enemy.