During the war, nearly one million American soldiers were treated for psychiatric disorders. Every fourth member of line departments was considered mentally ill. The Germans, in turn, treated their "neurotics" ... with electroshock.
Contrary to appearances, it was not the losses in the form of the dead or injured that were the biggest problem for the US Army. When someone was injured, at least you knew what to do with it (patch it up, send it to the hospital, convalescence or home). Meanwhile, psychiatric problems were neither foreseen nor prepared by the army to treat them. Znienacka, as soon as the first Yankees landed in Africa (and then in Italy and France), a real epidemic broke out ...
German military hospital in Siedlce (photo from the forum of the "Discoverer" magazine).
During the course of the war, 929,307 American soldiers were treated psychiatrically, and 320,000 were sent back to Poland as irretrievably unfit for service. A total of 8.9% of Americans in uniform were affected by mental problems.
The situation was incomparably worse in line divisions. During the most severe fights, from June to November 1944, this percentage was as high as 26%! There were divisions in which more soldiers "went crazy" than they served (even 150%).
Martin van Creveld, author of the book "Wehrmacht versus the US Army" distinguished two groups of psychological victims in the Western European theater of operations:
The first group consisted of un shot soldiers, usually restorations, whose psyche fell apart within a few days of entering combat. The second type are experienced soldiers who broke down after about four months of fighting. (...) The soldiers of the first type were victims of the replenishment system and the insufficient compactness of the American units (...) those of the second type collapsed under the burden of unlimited service time (p. 147) .
A US military hospital from the Second World War.
Significantly, the death toll in the US Army was over three times less than the psychological ones. On the other hand, the number of the injured and those suffering from mental disorders was almost comparable.
Surprisingly, the situation was completely different in the German army, where, at least officially, mental illnesses hardly occurred. Martin van Creveld gives as an example the statistics on the Afrika Korps Rommel.
During the four-month period of intense fighting (September 1941 - January 1942), 283 people were sent for psychiatric treatment, 68 of whom were physically injured. It was not a large number compared to the 43,000 corps. Overall, in the German army, mental health problems were diagnosed in up to 3% of soldiers annually.
Discipline, training method, statistically greater combat experience and the lack of acceptance for such problems were certainly important. It seems, however, that the very vision of "treatment" was the most effective for the Wehrmacht members. If someone was not helped by a week of rest during which they were talked to in a firm but friendly manner (sic!) and a series of strenuous physical exercises, he was sent to a special military hospital.
There, the recalcitrant patients awaited the so-called "faradization" - a treatment with an electric current strong enough to cause pain. Drugs (e.g. cardiazole) were also administered to the patients. No wonder that even 85% of them quickly returned to the front, assuring their complete recovery ...
Source:
- Martin van Creveld, Wehrmacht versus the US Army 1939-1945. Combat Strength Comparison , Erica Publishing Institute, 2011, pp. 138-148.