INITIATIVE & LEADERSHIP: British versus the Balkans military style! Bosnia & Karpalak ! In the British Army & the Australian Army (an off shoot of the British), all soldiers in a 9 man infantry section or 10 man squad led by a Corporal are cross trained to do each others job, so that if one is wounded or killed the other can take over. So theoretically any of the 9 men in that section is potentially a leader. In other militaries, soldiers are not cross trained nor are they trained to lead if the Section Commander or Squad Leader is killed. So in theory if you kill the leader the soldiers under his command will panic and not know what to do. In non-military civilian terms it is the ability to think for yourself but exercising initiative still within a chain of command and a hierarchy. It was a quality missing in many of the Bosnian Serb, Croat and Muslim paramilitaries during the Bosnian conflict as well as in the Macedonian Army during the 2001 Karpalak Ambush by Albanian insurgents. In 1994 a British Army Corporal Wayne Mills led a patrol in Bosnia: ------ Wayne Kevin Mills CGC, a Corporal in the British Army, was the first gazetted recipient of the new Conspicuous Gallantry Cross. Second only to the Victoria Cross, it is awarded to military personnel, for conspicuous gallantry during active operations against the enemy. While serving with the 1st Battalion The Duke of Wellingtons Regiment (West Riding) on UN Service in Bosnia on 29 April 1994, a patrol led by Corporal Mills came under heavy small arms fire, from a group of Bosnian Serbs. The patrol returned fire, killing two of the attackers. The patrol moved away back towards their base and soon reached an open clearing, where it was obvious they would be highly vulnerable to fire from the attackers. Corporal Mills then performed an astonishing feat of bravery. Turning round, back into the wood, from his patrol he engaged the attacking group, delaying them long enough to allow the rest of his patrol to cross the clearing. Corporal Mills shot the leader of the group, causing the rest to scatter. He returned to his patrol safely. en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wayne_Mills_%28British_Army_soldier%29
Posted on: Tue, 26 Aug 2014 03:24:05 +0000
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