General Savage Leadership

At the outset of the film, General Savage is charged by his superior with a daunting task: improve the already dismal morale of the 918th, then fly those crews on daylight precision raids until they can’t fly any more. One of the central themes of the film is the question as to how much stress a man can really take, and how General Savage aims to push his men to that limit and beyond, if necessary.
When Savage takes over the 918th, the morale is low, but the men are fiercely loyal to Col. Davenport, from whom General Savage takes command. Because he has been flying missions with the men and utilizing a participative leadership style, Davenport sees firsthand how much is being asked of them, and sympathizes with their plight. He has seen the
While Davenport has the unwavering loyalty of his men and most will do anything for him, they quickly show that they are only willing to go so far under his command. Perhaps they feel they can get away with a little bit more under his command because he is a sympathetic figure, which is why so many of them fake illness to get out of their bombing runs. Savage, on the other hand, has an uncompromising leadership style, and is clearly prepared to sacrifice anyone at any time in order to achieve his objectives. At first, he almost ends up losing the entire 918th, as his strategy is a gamble more than anything else. He is hoping that by bringing them together against him, that they eventually will fight for him (and fight harder at that) when they finally taste some success. This is born out by the repeated daylight bombing runs the crews are forced to undertake to in order to meet the command’s objectives; and each time they go out, they are far more successful under Savage than they ever were under Davenport. Davenport, while able to get his men to fight well for him, is never able to push his men beyond their limits, because they know he will break down and side with them when they refuse. Conversely, General Savage does not accept quitters, and confines the worst of them to one particular plane (The Leper Colony) to prove that point. In creating the Leper Colony, Davenport is instituting reverse phycology to create a change in behavior. Members of The Leper Colony were known to be some of the strongest fighters within the 918th as displayed by Gately who flew three missions with cracked