ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the morale of the British formations allotted to 2nd Army between June and August 1944. During the Second World War many senior British officers had qualms about the steadiness of their troops when pitted against the German army, but these qualms antedated not only the Normandy campaign, but also the war itself. In the 1920s and 1930s the Army developed a doctrine based upon gaining victory through the application of mechanised firepower as a means of restoring mobility to the battlefield. A fuller, albeit still incomplete picture of the morale of the British formations in Normandy can be created using three other indicators. These are the statistics gathered concerning men who deserted or who went absent without leave (AWOL), statistics for self-inflicted wounds and statistics for men diagnosed as suffering from exhaustion.
