In this comparison, the 101st Airborne maintained its standards during the Battle of the Bulge. An unnamed veteran recalled to Alex Clarke that abandoning those standards would damage a unit's morale and leave its members unable to live comfortably with their conduct after the war. Loss of experienced officers offers one explanation for the breakdown of control in some Soviet formations that had fought through Stalingrad and reached Berlin exhausted. Other Soviet units had to restore control over those formations. British and American units, in this comparison, tended to restrain individual offenders themselves because misconduct stained the whole unit.
Notable Point · 2:42:01-2:45:14
How command and unit morale sustain discipline
A veteran's view of honour and morale accompanies a comparison of how experienced officers and cohesive units restrained wartime misconduct.