Wartime Morale
Wartime Morale and Propaganda during WWII
Morale is the spine in your back, the lift to your chin, the song on your lips, the grit in your craw. Morale is the spirit that makes you say defiantly "Is that so?" when you are told you aren't man or woman enough to do something and makes you do it! Morale gives you the heart to smile when the going is toughest; it gives you the spunk to wisecrack when the danger is greatest (Hunt 250). In the absence of a credible positive ideology, motivation was always a problem; in return, this led to fluctuations in morale. Consequently, raising and sustaining morale became all important, and morale itself developed into one of the unique obsessions of the Allies during the Second World War (Fussell 143). The ultimate goal of each army is to increase their own morale with positive and negative methods, while at the same time, diminishing the enemy's morale. Morale is far and away the most potent weapon in the whole arsenal and is comprised of civilian, artificial, individual, positive, and negative components, which are all achieved through different methods and contribute to the overall morale. In accordance to these components, physical, psychological, and external forces are all morale-defining factors, and their signs, contributions, importance, and effectiveness are observed during combat.
In waging war, civilian morale is quite as important as military morale; indeed, the morale among the soldiers and sailors is largely dependent on the morale at home. The soldiers must feel that the fighting morale at home is equal to their own (Hunt 254). Home morale is essential to the maximum production of tools during war and to the fighting spirit at the front (Clausewitz 95). During the Second World War, civilian morale was the main target, and by the new technique, "strategic bombing." On the allied home front manufacturers that produced mass quantities of frivolous commodities like beer, tobacco, and chewing gum moved
Morale is the spine in your back, the lift to your chin, the song on your lips, the grit in your craw. Morale is the spirit that makes you say defiantly "Is that so?" when you are told you aren't man or woman enough to do something and makes you do it! Morale gives you the heart to smile when the going is toughest; it gives you the spunk to wisecrack when the danger is greatest (Hunt 250). In the absence of a credible positive ideology, motivation was always a problem; in return, this led to fluctuations in morale. Consequently, raising and sustaining morale became all important, and morale itself developed into one of the unique obsessions of the Allies during the Second World War (Fussell 143). The ultimate goal of each army is to increase their own morale with positive and negative methods, while at the same time, diminishing the enemy's morale. Morale is far and away the most potent weapon in the whole arsenal and is comprised of civilian, artificial, individual, positive, and negative components, which are all achieved through different methods and contribute to the overall morale. In accordance to these components, physical, psychological, and external forces are all morale-defining factors, and their signs, contributions, importance, and effectiveness are observed during combat.
In waging war, civilian morale is quite as important as military morale; indeed, the morale among the soldiers and sailors is largely dependent on the morale at home. The soldiers must feel that the fighting morale at home is equal to their own (Hunt 254). Home morale is essential to the maximum production of tools during war and to the fighting spirit at the front (Clausewitz 95). During the Second World War, civilian morale was the main target, and by the new technique, "strategic bombing." On the allied home front manufacturers that produced mass quantities of frivolous commodities like beer, tobacco, and chewing gum moved
Cited: Clausewitz, Carl von. On War. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1976. Fussell, Paul. Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989 Hunt, Erling, ed. America Organizes to Win the War. Chicago: Harcourt, Brace and Company, Inc., 1942. Psychological Operations. Rouse, Ed. 2004. 19 April 2005. Psywar. Richards, Lee. 2005. 13 April 2005.