Anyone have any idea how Battle Fatigue or PTSD treated in the German Italian or Japanese military? if in fact it was treated?
Great question and a very welcome on the forum.
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I just read a book about the nurses working on the danish hospital shop Jutlandia during the Korean War. It worked closely with 2 US hospital ships, but Jutlandia was the only ship with female nurses, which made it popular with the troops. Could take casulties directly from the front flow in by helicopter.
The book take up this topic briefly, and at the time PTSD and similar was simple not known. It was seen as bad nerves, and the threatment was rest and comfort. (and for that the female nurses had a motherly touch to the young soldiers) They knew there could be serious cases, as the ship had 2 cells where the wallswas coveres with leather to prevent the patient to do damage in himselves. In one case a patient destroyed the leather walls and was belted to a bed.
Denmark had soldiers in Afghanistan since the beginning, but just within the last decade there have been developed a formal Psychological de briefing. Research among 3000 soldiers shows that up to 10% develop different levels of PTSD, and 17% end up with psychological diagnosis that requires threatment. It seems that working on UN peace keepings missions are Especially stressful as they are put in a situation between civilians which are difficult to solve. Soldiers who did service in Ex Jugoslavia was hit hard. Since then the civilian aspect has been a part of the military training (cultural understanding, Negotiation technique)
As I see it, the problem escaleted during the Vietnam War when the troops was organised in small tightly knit platoons that had known each other for a long time. Very good for combat efficiency, but make it harder to cope with casulties.
Look forward to hear more views on this important topic
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