Military Review English Edition March-April 2015 | Page 80

treated side-by-side for wounds by opposing forces at
battlefield aid stations across the area of operations.
Donald Crosby describes how an American chaplain,
Francis Sampson, witnessed a badly wounded German
soldier crawl to a wounded American who had slipped
off his litter onto the hard ground.46 The German soldier, in obvious pain, gently repositioned the critically
wounded American into a more comfortable position.
This would be the German soldier’s last act of kindness.
He died later that night.47
Elsewhere on the battlefield, two paratroopers
and medics, Pvt. Robert E. Wright and Pvt. Kenneth
J. Moore, of 2nd Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry
Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, set up an aid station
in the small church in the village of Angoville au Plain in
Normandy, France. It was D-Day, 6 June 1944.48
Their orders were to treat U.S. soldiers only. They
were not to take German prisoners alive for the first
48 hours. Because of their Christian faith, they ignored
this order. Control of the ground of their aid station
changed hands numerous times as the fighting around
them dragged on. They became overwhelmed with
more than 80 German and American wounded soldiers
bleeding in pews and even on the altar of the small
stone church.
This aid station was defended only by a Red
Cross flag when the wooden door of the church
burst open. A German officer stood primed with
machine gun tightly gripped at the ready, rage in his
eyes. When he saw that German soldiers were being
treated by the medics, the officer’s countenance
quickly became serene as his rage drained away; he
tearfully thanked the American medics for their care
of his soldiers and promised to send a surgeon to
assist with the wounded.49
These examples show how soldiers even in the
turmoil of combat can stay centered on their morality
and spiritual belief, strengthened by the principles
of jus in bello. While war may take lives and destroy
the structures of civilization, it need not destroy a
soldier’s identity a s expressed in care for other human beings and adherence to sacred beliefs. Even the
taking of life can be done with sober intent in relation
to the enormity of the action. Jus in bello guides the
soldier to recognize the humanity of the enemy, thus
preventing dehumanization that can lead to atrocity
and even genocide.
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Victory Through Honor
In combat, the saying “death before dishonor”
expresses virtue at all costs. However, such a sacrifice
is not always required. Indeed, more times than not,
honor and other virtues may assist in victory. There are
times when moral behavior and adherence to jus in bello
can support triumph not just for the individual but also
for the force. Moral action not only is the right thing to
do but also it is the most effective thing to do.
According to Dave Grossman, during World War I,
U.S. soldiers had such a reputation of humane conduct
that in World War II, many Germans advised their
young relatives entering into service, “Be brave, join the
infantry, and surrender to the first American you see.”50
The American reputation for good treatment had
survived from one generation to the next.51 Once
Germany neared defeat in World War II, units fighting
the Soviet Army would move out of the sector in order
to surrender to American troops. Needless bloodshed
was averted because they expected, and typically were
given, good treatment.
According to Andrew Roberts, attitudes were far
different on the Russo-German front.52 Both sides were
swept into cycles of atrocity against soldiers and civilians.
By the end of the war, German and Soviet soldiers were
fighting each other to the last man, seldom taking prisoners. Soviet soldiers were told they were not accountable for civil crimes committed on German soil and that
property and women were theirs by right and were the
spoils of war. More than two million German women
and girls were raped.53 This vengeful policy was a reaction to Nazi atrocities committed in the Soviet Union
during invasion and occupation by German troops.54
Good moral conduct and a reputation of fair play
have beneficial results on the traditional battlefield, but
also they have beneficial results in counterinsurgency.
For example, morality played a strategic role in the
guerrilla warfare of Vietnam, as it did in the wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan.
While insurgents often use terrorist tactics,
counterinsurgency forces are limited in their
actions. In his classic Counterinsurgency Warfare:
Theory and Practice, David Galula explains that insurgents are judged by promises, but counterinsurgents are judged by their actions, and they are tied
to their responsibility as well as to what they have
done.55 If they lie or cheat, their short-term gains
March-April 2015  MILITARY REVIEW