On Killing

[dennisw]

I'm about halfway through the book On Killing by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman. I had to stop reading it for a while in order to get some distance from what the author was talking about and regain my objectivity. I didn't post this in the book section as my question is not about the book so much as some of the statistics and theories he discusses.

The author contends that only 1 or 2 soldiers of ten actually fired thier weapons with an intent to kill the enemy in WWII. This ratio does not reflect support personnel who were not on the front lines. It's 20% of infantrymen on the front lines in a position to fire on the enemy.

In a story about the civil war he writes:

"Author of the Civil War Collector's Enclyopedia F.A. Lord tells that after the battle of Gettysburg, 27,574 muskets were recovered from the battlefield. Of these, nearly 90 percent (twenty-four thousand) were loaded. Twelve thousand of these loaded muskets were found to loaded more than once, and six thousand of the multi load eapons had from three to ten rounds loaded in the barrel. One weapon had been loaded twent-three times."

It's his contention that these soldiers went through the motions of fighting but did not or would not shoot at the enemy.

I guess I've been living under a rock, but the above took me by surprise. Of the folks on this site who have been in combat, is this equally surprising?