In my never-ending series on how biases shape the behaviour of all people, even the ones we commonly dehumanise as greedy bastards (aka bankers), professional liars (aka politicians and lawyers), narcissists (aka CEOs), I want to turn my attention to Nazis.
Funny how after the war, Lufthansa adopted the same escalating status tier logic for their affinity points program: Frequent Traveler, Senator, HON Circle ... at least this time nobody had to shoot anyone down to qualify. Just fly. A lot.
As ever fascinating and stimulating. I understand the Luftwaffe (and Imperial Naval and Army Japanese Air Forces) kept star aces at the front lines, rather than retiring them to focus on training the next cohort, with severe consequences especially as fuel shortages intensified. There might be a financial services lesson in there..
Fascinating article. One factor sticks out to me - pilot survival rates. My understanding is the Luftwaffe didn’t have tours of duty, a frontline pilot was expected to stay in combat indefinitely, although presumably breaks for rest occasionally.
The US bomber aircrews in the UK (8th army air force) had, from memory, tours of 30 combat missions. The novel catch 22 was all about the obsession with the length of duty serving in Mitchell bombers in Italy.
Most persuasive of all is the wonderful film Thunderbolt, on YouTube, about the attitude of the commanders of fighter-bombers in the Italian theatre of operations, the final year of so of war. Their attitude was our pilots are too valuable to lose - they only engaged German fighters if they had a clear advantage; height, surprise & speed. In a “fair fight”, where a dogfight could end with a German victory, just break off the engagement and fly at speed away was the standard order.
I think my point is that no matter what effect medals had on German pilots, they lost the war and most aces died. The US war machine was based on “more of everything” and treat your pilots as more valuable than the plane they are flying. Frequently in the Pacific, crews of B29s were ordered to bail out and let a damaged plane ditch and be lost - again the aircrew were harder to replace than planes.
My thought is that German medals made for good propaganda, but the best incentive to fight is the confidence that your commanding officers are doing everything to keep you alive so you go home. Perhaps companies who look after their employees have an edge today.
So medals are like bonds...
Remember Cross of Iron, Maximilian schell.
Funny how after the war, Lufthansa adopted the same escalating status tier logic for their affinity points program: Frequent Traveler, Senator, HON Circle ... at least this time nobody had to shoot anyone down to qualify. Just fly. A lot.
LOL.
As ever fascinating and stimulating. I understand the Luftwaffe (and Imperial Naval and Army Japanese Air Forces) kept star aces at the front lines, rather than retiring them to focus on training the next cohort, with severe consequences especially as fuel shortages intensified. There might be a financial services lesson in there..
Loved this article. It was Napolean that said “Give me enough medals and I can win any war.”
Fascinating article. One factor sticks out to me - pilot survival rates. My understanding is the Luftwaffe didn’t have tours of duty, a frontline pilot was expected to stay in combat indefinitely, although presumably breaks for rest occasionally.
The US bomber aircrews in the UK (8th army air force) had, from memory, tours of 30 combat missions. The novel catch 22 was all about the obsession with the length of duty serving in Mitchell bombers in Italy.
Most persuasive of all is the wonderful film Thunderbolt, on YouTube, about the attitude of the commanders of fighter-bombers in the Italian theatre of operations, the final year of so of war. Their attitude was our pilots are too valuable to lose - they only engaged German fighters if they had a clear advantage; height, surprise & speed. In a “fair fight”, where a dogfight could end with a German victory, just break off the engagement and fly at speed away was the standard order.
I think my point is that no matter what effect medals had on German pilots, they lost the war and most aces died. The US war machine was based on “more of everything” and treat your pilots as more valuable than the plane they are flying. Frequently in the Pacific, crews of B29s were ordered to bail out and let a damaged plane ditch and be lost - again the aircrew were harder to replace than planes.
My thought is that German medals made for good propaganda, but the best incentive to fight is the confidence that your commanding officers are doing everything to keep you alive so you go home. Perhaps companies who look after their employees have an edge today.