Summary Of Slim's State Of Morale

52. Slim’s final anxiety was the state of morale within the 14 Army. Slim states, “There was no doubt that the disasters in Arakan, following an unbroken record of defeat, had brought morale in large sections of the army to a dangerously low ebb.” Slim knew that if his forces had any chance at all to defeat the Japanese and retake Burma, morale must improve quickly throughout the ranks. In determining where to start in this most difficult task, he began with himself.
53. Slim discusses how he began the process of improving morale with the following comments, “So when I took command, I sat quietly down to work out this business of morale. I came to certain conclusions, based not on any theory that I had studied, but on some experience and a good deal of hard thinking. It was on these conclusions that I set out consciously to raise the fighting spirit of my army.”
54. In the area of intellectual foundation, Slim believed there were three components. First, the soldier must believe in his mind that the object is attainable. Second, the soldier must see that his unit is an efficient one, which is focused on an attainable object. …show more content…
Slim did not make promises in his talks, but he did focus on the spiritual, intellectual, and material foundations of morale. Slim would begin his discussions by addressing the material foundations of war. These included the obvious areas, such as food, mail, pay, beer, leave, and discussing when they would be going home. Once he had their attention, he would shift his talk into the spiritual and intellectual foundations. In particular, he focused on ensuring his soldiers understood what the object of their fighting was, that the objective was attainable, and how they would obtain it. In no uncertain terms, Slim told his soldiers that the object was not to defend India from Japanese attack or even reoccupy Burma. The object was the complete destruction of the Japanese Army through violent offensive action and was truly