You’re vastly overstating the criticisms of S. L. A Marshall. He did not just make up his figures. His research was not an invention. He conducted hundreds of interviews with soldiers who had recently been in combat. The U.S. Army found this research quite valuable and uses it to this day. Some people don’t like his conclusions, and attempt to dispute them, but usually without attempting to collect actual data that would weigh against Marshall’s.
The Wikipedia article’s claim that “Professor Roger J. Spiller (Deputy Director of the Combat Studies Institute, US Army Command and General Staff College) demonstrated in his 1988 article, “S.L.A. Marshall and the Ratio of Fire” (RUSI Journal, Winter 1988, pages 63–71), that Marshall had not actually conducted the research upon which he based his ratio-of-fire theory” appears to be false. Spiller’s article criticizes Marshall’s methodology and points out a number of weaknesses in his later accounts. However it does not claim that the interviews Marshall described did not take place. Rather it suggests that Marshall intentionally or unintentionally sometimes inflated the number of interviews he had conducted, though it still allows for hundreds to have taken place. The RUSI article doesn’t seem to be online, (I’ll try and see if JSTOR has a copy) but some relevant portions are quoted here.
I agree that Marshall’s evidence is not perfect. I’d be interested to see better evidence, and if it came to different conclusions than he did, using better research techniques, then I would update my beliefs accordingly. Until I am see such research, though I am very wary of poorly sourced ad hominem attacks.
Hum! That first article is very interesting; it quotes Marshall as saying the percentage of men who fired their weapons was 15% in an average day’s action. This is very different from 15% firing their rifles at all, which is the claim usually made. So quite apart from being a fabrication, Marshall’s imaginary number is apparently even being misquoted!
Some interesting quotes:
John Westover, usually in attendance during Marshall’s sessions with the troops, does not recall Marshall’s ever asking [who had fired their rifles].
(Emphasis in original).
His surviving field notebooks show no signs of statistical compilations that would have been necessary to deduce a ratio as precise as Marshall reported later in “Men Against Fire”.
You’re vastly overstating the criticisms of S. L. A Marshall. He did not just make up his figures. His research was not an invention. He conducted hundreds of interviews with soldiers who had recently been in combat. The U.S. Army found this research quite valuable and uses it to this day. Some people don’t like his conclusions, and attempt to dispute them, but usually without attempting to collect actual data that would weigh against Marshall’s.
The Wikipedia article’s claim that “Professor Roger J. Spiller (Deputy Director of the Combat Studies Institute, US Army Command and General Staff College) demonstrated in his 1988 article, “S.L.A. Marshall and the Ratio of Fire” (RUSI Journal, Winter 1988, pages 63–71), that Marshall had not actually conducted the research upon which he based his ratio-of-fire theory” appears to be false. Spiller’s article criticizes Marshall’s methodology and points out a number of weaknesses in his later accounts. However it does not claim that the interviews Marshall described did not take place. Rather it suggests that Marshall intentionally or unintentionally sometimes inflated the number of interviews he had conducted, though it still allows for hundreds to have taken place. The RUSI article doesn’t seem to be online, (I’ll try and see if JSTOR has a copy) but some relevant portions are quoted here.
I agree that Marshall’s evidence is not perfect. I’d be interested to see better evidence, and if it came to different conclusions than he did, using better research techniques, then I would update my beliefs accordingly. Until I am see such research, though I am very wary of poorly sourced ad hominem attacks.
Libgen is your friend: https://pdf.yt/d/zueukhIJDa6woF9R / https://www.dropbox.com/s/dwjrpviga6e137z/1988-spiller.pdf / http://sci-hub.org/downloads/d5cf/spiller1988.pdf
Hum! That first article is very interesting; it quotes Marshall as saying the percentage of men who fired their weapons was 15% in an average day’s action. This is very different from 15% firing their rifles at all, which is the claim usually made. So quite apart from being a fabrication, Marshall’s imaginary number is apparently even being misquoted!
Some interesting quotes:
(Emphasis in original).
Update: JSTOR does not appear to include RUSI Journal. If anyone has access to a library that does have it, please do us a favor and look it up.