Court martial records reveal actual battle confusion that training manuals conceal

Evidence

This particular document is interesting because it offers us an image of the workings of an army during battle that is considerably different from the one portrayed in the training manuals and military laws that were reviewed in the last chapter. The difference between the two images is not accidental: it is based on the essentially different natures of the documents portraying them. The training manual, as we have seen, describes an ideal situation in which the men and their equipment, their bodies and their minds, appear to be thoroughly manipulated, controlled and “inscribed.” The court martial, on the other hand, in its attempt to identify the culprit and assign blame, describes the battle situation as actually experienced with all the confusion, havoc and panic that characterize it and distinguish it from training drills. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 908

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the theme of official records versus lived experience seen in A Midwife’s Tale and other archival-history work.