BOOK REVIEW : SUPPLYING WAR.

I have had this book since its original publication in 1977. It is one of my favourite books which gets re-read regularly and undoubtedly strongly influenced my passion for military logistics in the horse drawn era. The book covers the development of logistics from the campaigns of the 1650s through to Western Europe in 1944 but with strong emphasis on Napoleons invasion of Russia in 1812, the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, Germany's invasion of France and Belgium in 1914 and Germany's invasion of Russia in 1941.

 The level of detail is fantastic, even down to a calculation of the number of standard forage wagons needed to provide the daily rations for the horses of just one of the German armies invading Belgium in 1914. (984 !!!!!) The book provides a significant alternative point of view on why the selected campaigns failed, or indeed even managed to get going at all, which demonstrates clearly that generalship, strategy and tactics are virtually irrelevant if the logistical foundations are lacking. On the other hand, Napoleons advance to Moscow was actually a triumph of horse drawn wagon based logistics, it only went wrong on the retreat.

It is a common belief that logistics were a minor issue during the horse drawn era and that some how or other armies just got by and in any case logistics only became a significant constraint on military operations with the advent of motor transport and modern quick firing weapons. This book clearly demonstrates the fallacy of that view but also convincingly shows that horse drawn wagons could in fact indefinitely support huge campaigns  provided only that the distance from railhead to front line remained modest. This is further reinforced by the book, Retreat from Gettysburg, that I reviewed previously.

If you have any interest in logistics especially in the horse dependant world, this book is a must read as indeed I think it should be for all the 18th and 19th century wargamers out there who's current table top battles take no account what so ever of logistics thereby rendering the results fundimentally flawed.

UPDATE.

At last I have time to update my blog. The decorating has finished, at least for the time being. That is to say that only the kitchen is left to do and that is subject to  the new kitchen we are having, until that is finalised I can not finish painting as I have no wish to paint areas that will be covered up by new units or indeed vice versa.

Anyway, I have had some "play" time recently and progress to date is as follows. The third of the Cavalry upgrades has been completed at last and I have just started building the fourth of the six batches. Work has also continued on upgrading various vehicle types as outlined in  previous post. Following the reorganisation mentioned in my last post, I am currently working on the first of my new Infantry battalions. The new structure requires 12 new Infantry battalions and creation of 24 Heavy weapons companies for existing Infantry battalions. The remaining Infantry battalions have already been provided with a Heavy Weapons company by means of breaking up the old Heavy Weapons battalions.

During the rest of today I will be writing some reviews covering the books I have read over the past several weeks as well as updating the organisation posts for the various units impacted by the reorganisation referred to above. I hope to now get back into posting every week and maybe even starting the long planned posts on Imagi Nations.

UPDATE.

Hello again !!!!!!! Yes I am still here although I could be mistaken for a professional house painter !!!!!!

Over the past three weeks I have been feverishly painting for 13 days, spent four days away on a mid week break to Kent and the other days were taken up with family/social activities. Only today have I had any real "play" time since I last posted on the blog.

In terms of modelling all I have managed to do is continue with equipment upgrades as previously described and finally complete the upgrade to my Medical battalions. These extra 132 soldiers will be issued to units over the weekend once the paint is dry. No progress has been made on the Cavalry upgrades at all.

Other than that I have spent several odd hours reviewing the overall organisation of my armies based on a number of "wargaming" experiences over the past year or so. Usually I just list these "ideas" as they occur to me and consider them at leisure. There were several inter related ideas and I have finally decided to implement them all at the same time. Digressing for a moment, I should explain my "wargaming" experiences. As previously mentioned, I have always played out battles and campaigns in my head rather than on a tabletop. It is my intention to write a series of posts about these activities under the heading of Imagi Nations, just as soon as I have time. Some of these posts will describe those campaigns and battles within the overall context of the imaginary world my armies inhabit.

That said, I have learned many useful lessons during those battles, which I will of course discuss in the Imagi Nation articles,  that give rise to organisational changes and it is those lessons I have now decided to implement. In essence the major changes are; 1: elimination of Heavy Weapons battalions and reallocation of heavy weapons to all Infantry battalions, 2: creation of some additional Infantry battalions to give each Infantry Brigade (Division) a better balance , 3: elimination of  Artillery Brigades as separate units, the Field Artillery battalions have been reallocated to Infantry Brigades and the Heavy Artillery battalions have been reallocated as Army troops.

I have completed the paperwork  detailing the new structure, with an Army of 46,000, good records are essential !!!!! I have also created the work sheets outlining the additional troops and vehicles to be built. I  will update the various unit organisational tables elsewhere on this blog as soon as possible. Overall the changes require about 5,000 new soldiers and 400 new vehicles or equipments. As my decorating duties are nearly finished, (how pleased am I ) I hope to be able to properly restart my modelling activities in another week or so. I also have a raft of book reviews to write as of course my reading has continued despite all the decorating.

If you like this blog, please let me know,  even if not, I would still very much like to have your comments please, all are welcome.

BOOK REVIEW : THEIRS NOT TO REASON WHY.

This is a classic book from my library telling the history of the provision of horses to the British Army from 1875 to 1925 with an emphasis on the Boar War and World War 1. The author goes into fantastic detail on how horses were procured, the efforts made to ensure sufficient horses were available for mobilisation and the work that went into looking after horses especially after the appalling losses in the Boar War. The research that was done to write this book is highly impressive and took years of hard work. Whilst I admit there are some passages that go into a little too much detail about the various committees that looked into the matter of how to ensure sufficient of the right type of horse was bred at a time of declining civilian demand, this is more than compensated by the insights into the various types of horse needed and the enormous efforts made to import the thousands needed from 1914 onwards. To someone like me, who is highly interested in horse drawn logistics, this book is a wonderful source of fascinating detail.

The one thing that sticks in my mind is that although horses cost around £50 each throughout this time frame, which is the equivalent of three or more years pay for a soldier, the lack of care they were given, especially before about 1916 is truly depressing. Not only from a humanitarian point of view but also from a financial perspective the wastage was awful. Horses were frequently starved due to High Command imposing reduced rations or failing to provide the resources needed to construct adequate accommodation let alone the excessive work they were made to do. It must also be born in mind that the British clearly took far better care of their animals than the French or Germans who's losses were even greater.

Overall a fascinating book and highly recommended to those interested in the universal form of tactical transportation before the motor vehicle became common place.

BOOK REVIEW : JACK TAR.

This is a re-read of a book in my library. A very interesting account of life in the Royal Navy during the Nelson era. The daily hardships of life under sail were almost as bad as battle, in fact it seems that combat was preferred to peace, at least the sailors then had some excitement and relief from the drudgery of regular duties. I like books like this which do not give huge amounts of space to a re-telling of the battles but actually concentrate on the life of the average sailor.

The most telling aspect to me is the fate of the "pressed" man, often a merchant sailor just back in port after a long voyage, enjoying a drink in a tavern, who found himself grabbed by the press gang before he even had time to go home, and then facing literally years of service on a Royal Navy ship with no escape other than death by disease or battle or the eventual paying off of the ship.

An excellent book for those interested in naval matters during the Napoleonic wars.

UPDATE.

I write this weeks update in a brief interlude from decorating. As I mentioned in previous posts my wife has decided that the whole of our house needs upgrading. This started with remodelling of our bathrooms, extended into redecorating every room and is now moving into a new kitchen. Her view is that if we do it all at the same time the resultant mess will be over all in one go. It looks like the bathrooms will be done in January with the kitchen in November or maybe in January too.  So logic, hers that is , says I may as well do all the decorating now and who am I to argue !!!!!. So far the three bedrooms have been redecorated, two bathrooms de-tiled, replastered and  partially repainted ready for the plumber and the dining room also partially repainted.

So with decorating taking up at least four days a week, my modelling time has been very curtailed and will continue to be so for the rest of the year, hence why there was no update last week or even book reviews. This afternoon however I have managed a bit of a catch up.

Over the past two weeks I have managed to complete the first batch of light GS trailer upgrades and have assembled another batch which have been rebuilt and now await painting together with a batch of heavy GS trailers that required the addition of spare wheels, another of my equipment upgrades. The third Cavalry batch has made no progress however. With my wife out for the day  tomorrow I have been granted a day off so I hope to make good progress with these tasks.

With this posting are the reviews of the last two books I have read. Following my recent birthday I was very pleased to receive, apart from new slippers !!!!!!!!  six new books, all selected by me of course, which I look forward to reading and sharing on this blog just as soon as I have finished my current read of an old book from my library.

On another matter, I have been corresponding recently with Ian Dury who suggested I consider writing about the imaginary world in which my armies exist including the various campaigns and battles I have fought in my head and the enemies with which my armies contend. I did mention some time ago in a post that this idea had occurred to me too so I am very pleased that Ian thinks it would make an interesting series of articles. Some time ago I drafted the initial post on this subject and I will review that and hopefully publish it in the next few weeks.

Thanks Ian for your support and encouragement.

UPDATE.

Having had a busy week decorating, my "play" time has again been limited. So much so that I have not yet been able to complete my book report. I will try to do that soon. This week I have managed to build the third of the Cavalry upgrade batches which now need painting. Additionally I have finished painting the batch of caissons and these now await issue to Artillery battalions. One of the other upgrades I have planned is to rebuild early versions of the light GS trailer. In the first two of my three armies these vehicles had just simple box bodies. For the third army I added load covering tilts to the bodies, similar to GS wagons, to enable better identification of the vehicles. I am now adding this revision to older trailers. The first batch of 48 trailers have had the tilts added and now need painting.

UPDATE.

This weeks update has been written during a brief period of rest while painting the master bathroom and cloakroom !!!!!!! Months of such activity, commissioned by my wife, stretch before me over the coming autumn and winter rather than more pleasant model painting. That said I have this week managed to complete the second of the six Cavalry upgrade batches.  This revision provides a fourth squadron for each Cavalry regiment, so six Regiments are now upgraded with 12 left to go. In addition I have built a batch of 30 caissons which will complete the equipment of the artillery battalions in my third army.

I will publish this weeks book report shortly. While I can take photos of the books with my wife's camera phone, I have yet to master the process of moving images into the "cloud" from which I can then add them to this blog !!!! I am currently waiting for her to do the latest upload.

BOOK REVIEW : THE ZULU WAR JOURNAL.

This is a new book I bought recently in a local antiques centre. The author was a Lieutenant in a British Imperial battalion seconded to the Natal Native Contingent. He was brought up in Natal and spoke Zulu fluently hence his posting.

The book is very interesting in the detail it provides of the first invasion and the aftermath of both Isandalwana and Rorke's Drift. In particular I very much like the descriptions of his preparations to travel to South Africa from England, very much of the period. In that respect there is an interesting section later in the book when the author, with four other officers, went out searching for the missing Zulu King after the battle of Ulundi. Bearing in mind that Zululand was still technically in a state of war with thousands of fully armed Zulu warriors all over the place, these officers went into the wilderness armed with just one rifle and a handful of bullets between them !!!!! At one kraal they visited to seek information on the whereabouts of the King, they were surrounded by thousands of warriors as they interviewed the local Chief. Fortunately for them these particular Zulus had no ill intent.

 However this idea of not needing to carry weapons is a strangely Victorian/Edwardian idea. I have read any number of times about officers on the Western Front, literally in the front line, not bothering to carry weapons. On the same theme I have a number of big game hunting books and I have read of Victorian hunters going into the jungle with only three bullets. The idea being that they will probably only get one shot so a second bullet just in case and a third for emergencies. In all cases mentioned, the writers afterwards consistently wish they had been better armed. In think it demonstrates a state of mind, the innate superiority of the British officer/gentleman class perhaps. Personally in any of these situations I would be armed to the teeth, clearly I am not a gentleman !!!!!!

A splendid book and recommended.

UPDATE.

Once again I have had a busy domestic week with little time for modelling. All I have managed to do is to complete and issue the 34 Heavy Signals and Command trailers and partially paint the second batch of three new Cavalry squadrons. With me starting next week on preparation of the bathrooms ready for the plumber to rebuild  them, I don't expect the next few weeks to be any more productive especially as my wife has scheduled me to start decorating most of the house over the coming months.

If you like the book reviews I am doing each week, please let me know. I always try to draw some lesson or conclusion from each book, please let me know what you think of those conclusions especially if you don't like them !!!!!!!

BOOK REVIEW : RETREAT FROM GETTYSBURG.

This week I have re - read one of my favourite books.

This book is a masterpiece of historical research and is one of the very best on my favourite subject of 19th century logistics. The author describes in amazing detail the retreat of Lee's army after the battle of Gettysburg. For those who may not be familiar with the aftermath of the battle I will just say that the primary reason for Lee's invasion of the North, which culminated in the famous battle, was to forage for supplies in the rich countryside of Pennsylvania. At the time, Virginia, where most of the action had taken place during the first years of the Civil war, was exhausted of supplies and Lee's army was desperate for food, fodder and general supplies. The campaign was therefore undertaken to collect the means to continue the war. In that objective Lee was very successful. During the retreat, Lee's army was proceeded by over 3000 wagon loads of looted supplies together with thousands of cattle, sheep, pigs and horses taken by means of systematic foraging by the Army of Northern Virginia. There is no doubt that these supplies enabled the Confederacy to continue the War into 1864.

The book gives graphic descriptions of these trains of wagons moving south, bearing in mind they were accompanied by yet more thousands of supply, ordnance and ambulance wagons. Just consider if you can, the state of the roads with the dung of over 25,000 horses spread over them let alone all the looted cattle, sheep and pigs!!!! The average horse produces more than 30 to 40 pounds of dung per day, just imagine the following troops marching through that, not something any book ever addresses but a reality to the soldiers of the 19th century. 

The book also covers the slow and cautious advance of the Federal army as it sought to follow up its victory at Gettysburg and bring Lee's army to battle in a effort to stop a successful retreat back to Virginia, in which of course it failed.  At the time Lincoln was highly critical of Meade, the Union commander, for that slow advance. However Meade acted perfectly in a military sense and Lincoln's criticism demonstrates clearly a total lack of understanding of military logistics, something often seen with political leaders throughout history. Meade's Federal army was at the time exhausted after the battle and also desperately short of supplies and ammunition as his supply trains had not caught up with the earlier rapid advance of the army to the Gettysburg battlefield. In addition, Meade was initially unsure of the exact route Lee was taking in retreat. 

Political leaders without military skills only see little flags on maps and are oblivious to the realities of actually fighting an army. In WW2 Hitler demonstrated regularly such a lack of understanding. He even went so far as to stop the production of spare parts in favour of building new  tanks and created new divisions from the limited available manpower rather than reinforcing existing formations just so that he could have more flags on the map. That many of these flags representing divisions often had merely 500 soldiers and 5 tanks  interested him only when they predictably failed to achieve the tasks set for them.

Taking that one more step leads me to wargamimg practise today. I do not pretend to be a wargaming guru but I have seen rules that determine supply situations and troop moral on the basis of a throw of the dice. How can that possibly  reflect the real thing?? Every General in history knows that logistics are 90% of fighting a battle or campaign. No tactical manoeuvre plan survives contact with the enemy but having sufficient ammunition, food and fodder or fuel is absolutely critical to success. No campaign has ever been won by an army that is starving or without ammunition or does not have fodder or fuel to manoeuvre. Does anyone disagree, please let me know, such a discussion would be very welcome please.

This weeks update is brief because I have only had a little modelling time. This is due to pressure of domestic activities including planning work for the complete refurbishment of our three bathrooms. Of course that has led to demands for new flooring and repainting of most of the house. Now it seems to be leading to a new kitchen, the theory being that we may as well do it all together and get the mess over and done all in one go !!!!!!!!!! My wife's theory, not mine, I hasten to add. In addition,  my Mum's flat  has now been sold so we need to complete clearance over the coming weeks.
Anyway, this week I have only managed to complete construction of the 34 Command and Signals heavy house trailers as well as another three squadrons of Cavalry. I hope, in the coming week, to get these all painted, unless of course I have to look at more catalogues of toilets and sinks !!!!!!!

BOOKS.

THE ARMY OF ROBERT. E. LEE

This weeks book is a re-read from my library. A good basic book clearly describing the Army of Northern Virginia with some interesting pen pictures of the most prominent Confederate Generals too.Quite a lot of detail on  organisation and structure without the usual over attention to the various battles and campaigns that normally attend this type of book. I have never understood why books purporting to address the organisation etc of a military unit seem to also try to cover all the battles and campaigns of that unit. Those are usually far better dealt with in other books specifically written on those matters.
Some may not know that Arlington National Cemetery is actually on the former estate of Robert E Lee very near Washington DC. The estate was seized by the Federal government early in the war and originally used to bury the Northern dead from the opening battles of the war.

This week has been rather short of modelling time due to a busy domestic agenda. My youngest daughter has been visiting this week and I have also been busy with ongoing tasks relating to my Mums flat which has just been sold, rather quicker than anticipated actually. In consequence I have had to restart contents clearing activities, which, on the advice of the estate agents, had been on hold to make the property look more homely for prospective buyers.
That said I did manage to spend almost three hours  shelving the 500 plus soldiers recently repainted for the 19 Command battalions together with the 34 command and signals vehicles also completed last week. I have also made an early start on construction of the next batch of three Cavalry squadrons and have even prepared the bodies for 34 heavy Command and Signals trailers to go with the vehicles mentioned above.

BOOKS.

THE LOGISTICS OF MOBILIZING AND SUPPLYING THE UNION ARMY DURING THE INITIAL STAGES OF THE CIVIL WAR

This week I have read two books. That is not to say I have increased my read speed as one of the books is quite small.

This book was written as a thesis by an unnamed student and published by one of the many American Civil War research groups. The title caught my eye scrolling through Amazon a couple of years ago. Having  read it again my conclusion remains " good effort but not much original material". The book is a typical thesis in that there is a great deal of repetition, summarising and conclusions, all targeted on the methodology rather than the actual material. The content is all based on secondary rather than primary sources. It also only really addresses two areas, namely recruitment and provision of small arms. That said its interesting but could have been so much more.

My second read this week is more interesting.

A SUBALTERNS ODYSSEY

This is another autobiography by an artillery Lieutenant  in World war One. The author served from 1915 until badly wounded in 1917. There is a lot of interesting material about the daily demands on subalterns in artillery batteries including some unusually horrific descriptions of the results of German counter battery fire. The author survived his injuries and went on to serve throughout the 1920s and again during World War Two. This is clearly a case of a soldier who not only coped well with the horrors of war but actually, according to his son's foreword,  " I have no doubt he enjoyed the war."

Finally, as you may have noticed from elsewhere in my blog, I have a passion for numbers, that being the case, I have just counted the number of books I have, 703 so far. Of those about 180 are on the First World War, almost 70 on WW2 and over 60 on the Vietnam war. I have about 40 on big game hunting, mainly man eater hunting including all the books written by the famous Jim Corbett.  The rest of my library comprises books about the US Civil War, Indian Mutiny, Boar War, Napoleonic Wars, both land and sea, The Crimea, Victorian engineering and social history with a smattering of woodworking books and assorted odds and ends. My tastes cannot be described as broad  !!!!!!!!!

I have enjoyed a reasonable week of "play" time I am pleased to say. During the week I have finished the batch of 34 Command and Signals wagons. I have also completed the repainting of a little over 500 Command battalion soldiers to enable the revised structure of the 19 various Command battalions. In addition I have made an early start on another three Cavalry squadrons and have collected up the soldiers in the 12 Medical battalions that require repainting to enact the changes in those battalions. There are also another 132 new soldiers needed to complete that particular reorganisation. I also finally managed to complete and publish the post on construction of forge wagons, I hope that is of interest.
The next big decision I am facing is whether to maintain my dedicated Heavy Weapons battalions or issue a company of those weapons to each and every infantry battalion and convert the Heavy weapons battalions to line infantry. If I enact the change it will result in a large increase in the overall number of heavy weapons but I will clearly lose the ability to concentrate heavy weapons on the battlefield. Over the years my solo wargaming has consistently supported the concentration of heavy weapons in dedicated battalions so I have to carefully consider this matter to ensure I end up with the best tactical structure for the army.
Any views and comments would be welcome please.

FORGE WAGONS.

Forge wagons in my Army are allocated to the Veterinary/Farrier companies of Quartermaster battalions. Each company has four of these wagons which tow a light GS trailer carrying fuel supplies. The principles of operation are that Veterinary/Farrier platoons travel to all the Battalions supported by that particular Quartermaster battalion to "service" the horses of those units.

The historic reference for these vehicles is the German Vorratswagon 96 n/A of World War One as shown in the pictures below.

My vehicles are based on 5mm balsa slabs to my standard size of 30 x 15 mm. I cut two such slabs for each wagon. The second slab is cut into three parts, one of  15 x 15 and two of 15 x 10 all as shown on the left side of the photo below. These parts are then glued together to create a forward storage locker for raw materials with two side lockers for tools etc as shown in the centre of the photo below. I then file the ends of the side lockers to give a rounded profile, add a chimney made from a piece of plastic straw (or environmentally friendly paper straw!!!!) , a shaft with horse mounting block, wheels and towing hook. These operations are clearly shown from top to bottom on the right side of the photo below.

The photo below shows the whole batch of 24 vehicles with all plastic and metal parts primed. If there are any gaps between the lockers, I fill them with Milliput,  file smooth when dry and prime these areas too.

This next photo shows the batch of vehicles painted olive drab.

Here is the whole batch fully painted with horses and harness wire fitted. In case it is not clear in the photo below, I paint the chimneys black both inside and out. For the methods of manufacturing and painting of horses and the fitting of harness wire see my posts on horses and GS wagon construction..

Finally a close up of a single vehicle which hopefully will clarify any lingering construction questions.

When I first started building my Army my standard supply vehicle was a covered wagon. These were made using bits of wire to create the hoops over which was glued tissue paper to give the covered wagon look. Over the years my army was in storage, most of these fragile tissue tilts got damaged. In addition I realised that covered wagons were just too awkward to build in any quantity hence the GS wagon that I now use. However I was left with a number of covered wagons. These became my first Forge wagons as shown below.

 The rear part of the tilt was removed and a chimney added. The remainder of the tilt was repaired with more tissue and lots of super glue, its amazing how strong tissue becomes when soaked in super glue!!!!!!! These old converted vehicles bear a striking resemblance to the Vorratswagon.

Within the whole army group I have a total of 72  forge wagons of both old and new versions.

BOOKS.

THE GERMAN ARMY HANDBOOK OF 1918

This week I have read a new book found in a second hand book shop during a recent visit to the seaside.

Based on the British War Office handbook of April 1918, this is a gold mine of useful and interesting information. The level of detail is extraordinary. Strangely this bookshop also had a copy of a reproduction of the 1913 edition. Although both books were the same original price, in the same "as new" condition and virtually the same size, the 1913 version was three times more expensive. The bookshop owner could only refer me to the prices quoted on line, which he followed, with no other practical explanation of the price difference. As the content of both books was clearly very similar I elected to purchase the cheaper version. I have to say, the bookshop in question had one of the best collections of military books I have seen in a long time. I may have to go back one day !!!!!

I like these old War Office publications very much. I have a number of them including reproductions of the 1914 Field Service Pocket Book, The Employment of Machine Guns 1918 and the Field Service Manual for Infantry Battalions 1914. I also own an original Field Service Pocket Book from 1932 and an original Royal Army Medical Corps Training manual from 1911. All have splendid levels of intricate detail. 

I am pleased to report that, as predicted, I have enjoyed more modelling play time this week. As a result I have been able to half varnish the 500+ soldiers required for the Command battalions upgrade. In addition the 34 office and signals wagons have now been painted olive drab and the horses for these vehicles have also been "browned" in my standard horse colour. Finally I have completed the first batch of three Cavalry squadrons for my Cavalry regiments upgrade. Only another 15 squadrons to go !!!!!!

I am still working on the post about forge wagons that I mentioned back in May. The vehicles themselves were finished and issued months ago but other matters intervened to delay the "how to make" post. Anyway, its finally almost done so I expect to publish shortly. I am pleased to say I have now had my first couple of comments. As a result it was suggested to me that I  remove the moderation setting to enable comments to be added to the blog instantaneously. This I have now done. I hope it generates more comments please.

BOOKS.

SALUTE OF GUNS

I have just re-read a book from my library that I have had for some time.

This is the story of a Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery in World War One. The book is not the best from a military history perspective in that it is very literary, the author became a reporter at the Manchester Evening Post after the war and the book is full of dreamy descriptions of sun rises etc. There is however, a lot of interesting stuff about day to day experiences but the main focus is on the authors two nervous breakdowns during the war.
I have read other autobiographies where the author has had a breakdown or suffered PTSD as a result of their experiences. I have also got books describing similar experiences where the author has apparently sailed through a war and come out it seems, almost untouched by the horrors they suffered. It makes me wonder why some are so traumatised and others not. It is impossible to be sure as , I am pleased to say, I have not had any traumatic war experiences and additionally, I am not a psychiatrist.  However I think it comes down to the personality of the individual. It seems to me , from what I can gather of the personalities of the various authors, that those with a strong intellectual leaning are much more likely to suffer than those who are more matter of fact. I do believe that the greater a man's imagination, the more likely he is to suffer PTSD.
Anyone got any thoughts on this issue ?????