THE BROTHERHOOD OF ARMS... WHAT?

The brotherhood of arms is a state of mind before it is a quality. It is a condition of the principle of humanity. Leaders and subordinates are first and foremost men, united by the same ideal, who cooperate in building a common work. As such, they have infinite need of one another and it is this mutual dependence, particularly in combat, which is the foundation of the brotherhood of arms. It is the quality of human relations which is at the origin of this brotherhood; this indispensable notion cannot therefore flourish apart from the unabashed expression of a profound humanity, the same for all subordinates.

The fraternity of arms must condition the way in which the leader, in all his acts of command, is to behave. At every level of the hierarchy, it is among other things thanks to the brotherhood of arms that the pitfalls of routine and ease will be avoided: Injustice, bullying, misrule, lack of command, lack of consideration... ...and, among other things, the unacceptable attitude of not respecting human dignity.

THE BROTHERHOOD OF ARMS... WHY?

• The brotherhood of arms is one of the essential conditions for collective action.
• It makes it possible to overcome the constraints of military life and the trials of combat.
• It guarantees the cohesion of the group.
• It builds esprit de corps.
• It increases the resilience of the unit.

NO BROTHERHOOD OF ARMS ... WITHOUT :

• common purpose;
• shared effort and hardship;
• generosity and caring for others;
• mutual trust and respect;
• availability and closeness to the leader;
• quality and simplicity of human relations;
• concrete expression of solidarity (presence, support, assistance);
• cohesion.

THE BROTHERHOOD OF ARMS ... IN THE TEXTS :

"What is a brother-in-arms? It is quite simply someone with whom I am called, one day perhaps, to fight in operations. Someone to whom I will have to entrust my safety, my life, the success of my mission (...) Someone with whom I will share dangers, sorrows, successes, and sometimes failures. Someone with whom I will only be able to function properly if I have complete trust. Above all, it is someone I know well, whose qualities and faults, aptitudes and weaknesses, special know-how I know. »

Lieutenant General Bouquin Editorial Képi Blanc n°774 (2009).

"When the first bullets whistle in our ears, everyone will find themselves on their stomachs without distinction of rank, category or class. And the class struggle that divisions engender will disappear to give way to the struggle itself. "The companionship of the soldier remains one of the highest forms of human relations, the brotherhood of those who will die without knowing in what order," wrote Sanguinetti. Your regiment must be the place of this companionship in order to become the place of quality human relations which are the very condition of its existence... of its survival in combat. Dreaming? Utopia? No... mere realism that it is a matter of making real, of making real."

General Wilfrid BOONE message to the corps chiefs - Confidences on command (1980).

"The greatness of a profession is perhaps above all to unite men. It is only a true luxury and it is that of human relations. »

Antoine de SAINT EXUPERY

THE BROTHERHOOD OF ARMS... "IN TOUCH."

Testimony of a Deputy Unit Captain - Operation Pamir - Afghanistan - 2011:

"For this operation, the ITALS I am deputy is to take over and search a village. Quickly the platoons are in contact with the insurgents. Arrangements are made to hold out over time, but the order falls: "break contact before noon. This requires extracting from the village and then crossing an open wadi. Two of the company's platoons begin manoeuvring but are quickly fixed. The situation becomes critical, we have one, two and soon three wounded. The confrontation turns into a duel with small arms and grenades on the roofs of the houses. The overlap is such that support by armoured tanks or helicopters is too dangerous to be envisaged. To "give us air", I decide to launch a counter-attack. When I come to recover the volume of two battle groups, the volunteers jostle each other in a real spontaneous rush. It is indeed the brotherhood of arms that expresses itself here at the height of a combat action, in spite of the danger of which everyone is aware. Everyone understands that the fate of the comrades fixed by the fire of the adversary is at stake.

After infiltrating a maze of alleyways, the detachment emerges on the insurgents' flank and neutralizes them in a few minutes, by throwing hand grenades and firing machine guns. The two sections were extracted with all their wounded. On the order of the unit commander, they in turn rushed out into the open, still under enemy fire, and established a real safety corridor in the wadi, allowing the rest of the company to break contact. This fire action definitively sealed the cohesion of the battle group for the rest of the operation. »

Testimony of a Major NCO at the Paris Fire Brigade - Paris - 2007:

"On 16 November 2007, a garage was on fire in rue Ricquet, in the 19th arrondissement of Paris. Two officers of the brigade had just entered the building when it collapsed. The first of the wounded was extracted after 9 hours of fighting by the detachment on contact. His condition was serious and he died a few hours later in hospital. The second officer, probably killed on the spot when the building collapsed, was pulled from the rubble after 14 hours of hard work. This intervention was unprecedented by the brotherhood of arms that was present at the time of the event, even though the unit's operational landmarks were blurred. This brotherhood of arms continued after the intervention, during the still delicate phase of pain management of the group, shaken by the loss of two of its own. It was first and foremost the action of the head of the centre, directly supported by his unit commander and accompanied by his chief of staff commanding the rescue operations, that made it possible to overcome the ordeal. It is indeed the brotherhood of arms of the fire brigades that was put to the test once again through this event; it came out of it even stronger. »