S.L.A. Marshall

He retired in 1960 but acted as an unofficial advisor and historian during the Vietnam War. Marshall wrote over 30 books, his most famous being Men Against Fire: The Problem of Battle Command. In Men Against Fire, Marshall argued that fewer than 25 percent of soldiers actually fired at the enemy during combat. His analysis of the causes remains contested, while the data and methodology used to support his claim have been challenged. However, despite these misgivings, his conclusion that a significant percentage of troops failed to produce aimed fire in action have been reinforced by other studies, while his suggestions on how to reduce these numbers remain influential.

• Name — S. L. A. Marshall • Birth Name — Samuel Lyman Atwood Marshall • Born — 18 July 1900 • Died — 17 December 1977 • Birthplace — Catskill, New York, U.S. • Place of death — El Paso, Texas, U.S. • Burial Place — Fort Bliss National Cemetery • Burial Label — Place of burial • Nickname — Slam • Allegiance — United States of America • Branch — United States Army • Rank — Brigadier General • Unit — 90th Infantry Division (WWI) Eighth Army (Korean War) • Battles — *World War I • Battle of Saint-Mihiel • Meuse-Argonne Offensive • World War II • Korean War • Awards — Legion of Merit Bronze Star Medal (2) Combat Infantryman Badge • Other Work — author journalist

Samuel Lyman Atwood Marshall was born in Catskill, New York, on July 18, 1900, son of Caleb C. and Alice Medora (Beeman) Marshall. He was raised in Colorado and California, where he briefly worked as a child actor for Essanay Studios, before his family relocated to El Paso, Texas, where he attended high school. He was married three times, first to Ruth Elstner, with whom he had a son before divorcing; his second wife, Edith Ives Westervelt, died in 1953 and he had three daughters with his third wife, Catherine Finnerty. Marshall died in El Paso on December 17, 1977, and was buried at Fort Bliss National Cemetery, Section A, Grave 124. The University of Texas at El Paso library has a special collection built around his books and manuscripts.

Marshall enlisted in the US Army on November 28, 1917, joining the 315th Engineer Battalion, part of the 90th Infantry Division. Based initially in Camp Travis, near San Antonio, Texas, his division transferred to France with the American Expeditionary Forces in June 1918 and Marshall was promoted to sergeant. The 315th took part in the Battle of Saint-Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne Offensive. A 1921 history by of A Company 315th Engineers from formation to the end of 1918 shows that from 22 August to the Armistice, Marshall's company lost eight dead and fifteen wounded out of 165 men. Shortly after the Armistice, Marshall was selected to take the entrance examinations for the United States Military Academy, part of an initiative to promote exceptional soldiers from the ranks. He subsequently attended Officer Candidate School, was commissioned in early 1919, and remained in France to assist with post-war demobilization. After his discharge, he remained in the United States Army Reserve, and attended the Texas College of Mines, now the University of Texas at El Paso. In the early 1920s, he became a newspaper reporter and editor, first with the El Paso Herald, and later The Detroit News. As a reporter, Marshall gained a national reputation for his coverage of Latin American and European military affairs, including the Spanish Civil War. In 1940, he published Blitzkrieg: Armies on Wheels, an analysis of the tactics developed by the Wehrmacht prior to World War II, and used during its invasion of Poland and Czechoslovakia.

• Illustration — Marshall collected data using the small group debrief or after action review, a technique still employed by modern armies Following American entry into World War II in December 1941, the United States Army created the "Center of Military History", whose role was to "gather historically significant data and materials" for the benefit of future historians, an organisation that still exists. This initially consisted of 27 officers, including Marshall, although he viewed himself as a military analyst, rather than a historian. His first combat assignment was the Battle of Makin in November 1943, during which he used the oral history technique known as after action review, a process still employed by modern armies. He would gather surviving members of a front line unit and debrief them as a group on their combat experiences of a day or two before. Marshall later claimed he did so to resolve a dispute over who had been responsible for holding off a number of Japanese counter-attacks. By interviewing individual participants, each with a slightly different perspective, he created a considerably more detailed and accurate picture of the action than was possible previously. His experience as a journalist, and use of standard questions, allowed him to quickly produce large numbers of reports. These were used by the Army to identify tactical lessons; for example, Marshall found tanks called in to support infantry often withdrew even when their help was still required. To overcome this problem, they were made subordinate to the local infantry commander for the duration of the action. His interview techniques were quickly adopted throughout the US Army, and in 1944 Marshall was transferred to Europe where he ended the war as chief combat historian. In 1947, he used these interviews as the basis for his best known work Men Against Fire, whose most notable conclusion was that 75% of individual riflemen engaged in combat never fired at an exposed enemy for the purpose of killing, even when directly threatened. Marshall argued civilian norms against taking life were so strong many conscripts could not bring themselves to kill, even at the risk of their own lives, and suggested changes in training that would increase the percentage willing to engage the enemy with direct fire. Many were incorporated by the US military; Marshall reported far more men fired weapons during the Vietnam War. Less well known, but perhaps more significant, was a post-war project led by Marshall that employed former German officers to analyse all battles fought in Europe from 1939 to 1945. At its height, over 200 participated, including Heinz Guderian and Franz Halder, who allegedly used his position to vet the monographs and promulgate the myth of the clean Wehrmacht.

Marshall was recalled for three months in late 1950 during the Korean War as Historian/Operations Analyst for the Eighth Army. He used numerous combat interviews with Americans serving in Korea to create a treatise titled "Commentary on Infantry and Weapons in Korea 1950–51". His conclusions were later incorporated into a plan to improve combat training, weapons, equipment, and tactics. Following his retirement from the Army Reserve in 1960, with the rank of brigadier general, Marshall continued to serve as an unofficial adviser. He was a member of the Citizens Committee for a Free Cuba, founded in 1963. As a private citizen, he spent late 1966 and early 1967 in Vietnam on an Army-sponsored tour for the official purpose of teaching his after-action interview techniques to field commanders, in order to improve data collection for both the chain of command and the future official history of the Vietnam War. The Army Chief of Military History's representative on the tour, Colonel David Hackworth, collected his own observations from the trip and published them as The Vietnam Primer, with Marshall credited as co-author.

Leinbaugh viewed Marshall's claims as "maligning" American infantrymen and admitted he took them personally, and also queried details of his World War I service. He argued significant parts of Marshall's service record were not substantiated by independent evidence, including his claim to have been the youngest commissioned officer in the US Army, or to have commanded troops in combat. Grossman challenged the suggestion that these amounted to fabrications. In response, his grandson John Douglas Marshall, who was disowned by Marshall after registering as a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War, wrote a memoir about him in 1993 titled "Reconciliation Road". In this he analyzed his grandfather's WWI service, using official army records and personal letters written during the Meuse-Argonne offensive. He ultimately concluded the vast majority of Marshall's experiences in WWI can be independently verified by his service record.