All of this is, from an historical point of view, the opposite of what happened.
German officers were routinely surprised that there was a clear distinction between officers and men, and the former didn't eat together with the latter.
All of this is, from an historical point of view, the opposite of what happened.
German officers were routinely surprised that there was a clear distinction between officers and men, and the former didn't eat together with the latter.
In 1916 Alexander Powell, American war correspondent, was instead surprised that Italian Army officiers wore the same uniform of the ordinary grunts and spent all the week with them, instead of leaving the first line for the weekends, like it was common on the western front (he spent 1914 with the Germans and 1915 with French and British).
In 1916 Alexander Powell, American war correspondent, was instead surprised that Italian Army officiers wore the same uniform of the ordinary grunts and spent all the week with them, instead of leaving the first line for the weekends, like it was common on the western front (he spent 1914 with the Germans and 1915 with French and British).
Yet they did not eat with them. And by WWII the Germans had learned their lessons; the Italians didn't.
Also, there might have been some differences between the Regio Esercito and the Regia Marina.
Assuming the presumed absence of an officers' mess on German ships is a lesson worth to learn.
One can make arguments both ways about this, some level of detachment is needed between officers and men they will in a major war be required to send them on missions certain to result in deaths. The instant relations become to close and officers start thinking in terms of minimizing losses or playing favorites rather then completing their mission then you have a problem. This is sort of the officer paradox if you're too close to the men it can get hard to do your job, but if you're too distant or aloof they're liable not to motivated to follow you. It's a balancing act that's hard to get right so little wonder it often seems to swing too and fro rather quickly even within the same army
That said, to be honest these types of issues tended to be less pronounced in a navy by and large since in combat the officer's tended to be just as if not more exposed (since many would be top side or in the superstructure and hence outside any armor) to risk of death as the enlisted. The enemy was targeting the ship and there was no rear area to hide in after all. A Colonel could and was frankly basically expected to be far enough from the lines to be under fairly little risk in most cases. This was not an option for a Captain commanding a ship so almost by default there was more of a 'it's all our asses on the line' sense with your immediate to intermediate superiors then you got in many ground units.
In the navy you also had the factor that the standard of living between and officer and the enlisted wasn't often as drastically different. The average officer might get slightly better food (while it lasted) and maybe he only shared a small cabin with one other guy instead of a dozen but it wasn't like he was living a markedly different existence from the other guys on the ship and when on duty their standard of living was often nearly indistinguishable. There's also the fact that in many navies the senior enlisted men got treatment not that dissimilar to the officers.
Certainly they could still find ways to fuck it up by being general douchebags, but overall the Naval officer at least on an active warship tended to have something of a leg up already to be being quite literally in largely the same boat as his men.
That said, to be honest these types of issues tended to be less pronounced in a navy
Infact, contrary to what happens on other armed forces, Navy officers (those that really serve on a ship obviously) seems to almost be required to have an higher mortality than the ordinary seamen. On the other hand, while, IE on the frontline during the Desert Campaign, was not even thinkable for the junior officers to eat separately from the troops, on a large ship there is no design compromise in getting a officers' mess.
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I understand~!...being quite familiar there, Aquila.Carino, carino!A pleasure to meet you. Welcome to Japan.Ohi?
Was that no good?
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