Wednesday 30th: Mechelen’s Diary – February 1941

First of all, perhaps, I should say something about the senior officer of this unit, for context. Colonel Davids is a long-serving officer who knows the unit well, and who is on good and friendly terms with the senior officers of the other units, and with the officers of the higher command structures. He is reasonably articulate and professional, and he speaks in terms that the other officers recognise and approve. He gives the impression that he is focused resolutely on the prosecution of the war, and in the efficiency and relentlessness of his unit’s fighting power – to the exclusion of all other considerations. He gives the impression of being an honest, simple man, a non-political operator.

However, these impressions, so dominant amongst the senior officers, are not reflected in his relationships with his unit’s troops, or with junior officers. Junior officers find him weak and indecisive, and I have often heard it said that he will not make decisions, deferring them until the necessity to act is undeniable, or creating a badly compromised fudge that leaves an ugly, intractable mess for other people to clear up later. He is weak on detail, narrow in focus, and woeful in following up on his commitments. He is ineffective as a strategic thinker, and can only focus on one aspect of an issue at a time – I believe that he is intellectually incapable of comprehending the complexities of many tactical and combat situations. Furthermore, he is obviously uninterested in administration and systematisation, and his disinterest creates a culture of sloppiness and recalcitrance in his administrative and headquarters staff. He is totally reliant on his subordinate officers for the delivery of results, and they privately resent his ineffectiveness and grandstanding. His leadership is virtually non-existent: he relies upon a few skilled juniors to make all the pieces of the machine work together. Since he is also incapable of acting in cases of poor performance, his unit has a seam of weak officers running through it. These officers’ more capable peers resent the weaklings’ presence and incompetence, and bridle at their senior officer’s vacillation, and at their own ability to bring about change. There is, in short, a poisoned layer of resentment and ineptitude beneath the surface of this apparently effective machine.

Many of the unit’s troops (as well as many members of sister units) are openly contemptuous of the Colonel. It is shaming that such a senior officer can be so little regarded by his subordinates. The contemptuous nicknames for him – [a, b, c] – are used openly, especially when drink has been taken by the troops.

(c. 430 words)