UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE A STUDY OF EMERGENT LEADERSHIP STYLE AT THE D-DAY INVASION A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By MICHAEL DAVID PIERCE Norman, Oklahoma 2009 STUDY OF EMERGENT LEADERSHIP STYLE AT THE D-DAY INVASION A DISSERTATION APPROVED FOR A DEGREE IN THE GRADUATE COLLEGE BY _______________________________ Susan F. Sharp, PhD _______________________________ MG (Ret.) David T. Zabecki, PhD _______________________________ Michael G. Bemben, PhD _______________________________ Trent E. Gabert, PhD _______________________________ Jorge L. Mendoza, PhD © Copyright by MICHAEL DAVID PIERCE 2009 All Rights Reserved. Dedication This work is dedicated to the memory and spirit of the men who led the way, fought the good fight, and sacrificed their lives for freedom in World War II. Acknowledgements Just as it had done for the fiftieth anniversary of World War II in the 1990s, the U.S. Army served as the lead agency for commemorating the conflict ten years later. From 2004 to 2005, the Department of Defense World War II Committee organized and hosted the D-Day 60 events and many other commemorative activities. Major General David T. Zabecki, the 7 th Army Reserve Command Commander who had earned a Ph.D. in History, was the officer in charge of the commemorations in Europe. While serving as his executive officer, I had the privilege of being closely engaged in these events, coordinating matters from Normandy to Belgium to Prague, and I transcribed some of the veteran interviews. Assisting with historical aspects of this operation was the late Dr. Charles E. Kirkpatrick, a highly respected historian at Headquarters, V Corps in Heidelberg, Germany. Before his untimely passing, he rendered considerable help transcribing veteran interviews and as a WWII consultant. Moreover, he arranged to get the help of a former V Corps assistant historian, Lieutenant Colonel Alan R. Koenig, Field Artillery, USAR, to transcribe many of the interviews. A military history instructor at the University of Nebraska—Omaha, Dr. Koenig leveraged help from his most talented students to complete the laborious task of transcribing several dozen interviews. These students included: Lisa Zafirov, Mike Jimerson, Tera Smith, Erin Livingston, and Jonathan Melvin. Summarizing several accounts was Sergeant Ken Hall, a member of the DoD WWII Commemoration Committee. The U.S. Army Center of Military History at Fort McNair supported the interviewing process, which occurred just up the hill from Omaha Beach, by dispatching iv Dr. Patrick Hughes and the 44 th Military History Detachment, the only active duty unit of its kind in the US Army, as well as three Reserve Military History Detachments that participated in this project: the 49 th MHD, and the 305 th MHD and 53 rd MHD of the 99 th Reserve Readiness Center to Normandy to interview the veterans (Hanselman, 2005). The unit interviewed over two hundred veterans attending the commemoration ceremonies. Members of my dissertation committee spent many hours helping me complete this endeavor. They include: Dr. Michael G. Bemben Dr. Trent E. Gabert Dr. Jorge L. Mendoza Dr. Susan Sharp Dr. David T. Zabecki (MG Retired) The combined labors of all of these people help to preserve memories of the men who fought in Normandy. Using this support, I hope to discern lessons in leadership, to teach future generations to persevere even when the odds seem impossible, to appreciate the freedom they have, and to understand the price that warriors sometimes must pay to achieve it. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I. Studying D-Day to Understand Emergent Leadership Theory CHAPTER 1: Introduction: The D-Day Invasion and Its Relevance to the Study of Leadership. 1 CHAPTER 2: Overview of the Events Leading Up to the Battle of D-Day 3 CHAPTER 3: How D-Day unfolded: The Veterans’ Perspective 14 PART II. Leadership Theory and D-Day CHAPTER 4: Historical Development of Leadership Theory 50 CHAPTER 5: Current Leadership Theories 62 CHAPTER 6: Analysis of Existing Theories 86 CHAPTER 7: Theory on Emergent Leadership During Crisis (ELDC) 91 CHAPTER 8: The Current Study 96 CHAPTER 9: Historical Context and Impact of the Study 115 PART III. Observations from the Study CHAPTER 10: First Line Leaders: Company and Below 118 CHAPTER 11: Perceptions of Officers by Enlisted Soldiers 161 CHAPTER 12: The Senior Leaders 171 CHAPTER 13: Spontaneous Emergence of Group Leadership 197 CHAPTER 14: Training for D-Day 221 CHAPTER 15: Why They Did It 251 CHAPTER 16: The D-Day Effect 263 CHAPTER 17: Discussion of Theoretical Findings 274 vi CHAPTER 18: Personal Reflections on ELDC 287 REFERENCES 300 APPENDIX A: Interview Materials 307 APPENDIX B: Source Material Index 308 APPENDIX C: i. Maps of Operation Overlord (D-Day) Area of Operations 315 ii. Photos 319 vii ABSTRACT Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of the Third Reich’s Fortress Europa , has received considerable historical coverage since it occurred, Moreover, on the 60 th anniversary of the Normandy invasion, historians of the U.S. Army’s Center of Military History, supplemented by members of the 44th Military History Detachment from Fort McPherson, Georgia, plus three other Reserve Military History Detachments, the 49 th , the 305 th , and the 53 rd Military History Detachments interviewed nearly 200 invasion veterans in tents just up the hill from Omaha Beach. Transcriptions and distillations of these interviews yielded considerable historical material that allowed a qualitative study of American leadership in Normandy in late spring 1944. These oral histories reveal that compelling circumstances activated a core set of leadership competency traits in most of the troops. Other postwar leadership theories simply do not apply for Normandy operations. I observed leadership behaviors applicable when put to the test of real life situations, where making sound and timely decisions in the compacted battle space of the Normandy Beaches and countryside resulted in people living or dying. The measure of this qualitative study was the observations of whether a core of leadership traits, skills, training, and experience or other factors was present in the examples set by those who participated in D-Day. I hypothesize that a core of leadership competencies emerged in the American troops, regardless of their background, in times of crisis. Using the knowledge gained from both individual and collective histories of the group studied, this study will seek to viii discover some of the critical factors that enabled leadership to emerge among the participants in the fog of war. The study revealed that compelling circumstances activated a core set of leadership competency traits in most troops. Based on these results we conclude that there is core of leadership traits that are carried by most people. These findings led to the development of two theories on leadership: Emergent Leadership During Crisis (ELDC) and Emergent Leadership Over Time (ELOT). These two terms describe the process that occurs within individuals as crisis precipitates reaction, based on circumstances of the event, the individual’s readiness in terms of trait maturity (the level of development of particular traits needed to act in the situation), and the event itself. ix PART I STUDYING D-DAY TO UNDERSTAND EMERGENT LEADERSHIP THEORY CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: THE D-DAY INVASION AND ITS RELEVANCE TO LEADERSHIP STUDIES Knowledge gained from examining leadership displayed at Normandy, put in context with extant leadership theories, reveals this dissertation’s thesis of emerging leadership traits. A historical precedent exists in this methodology, since during World War II, historians interviewed many veterans, and, after the war, they studied various topics and campaigns to produce several dozen volumes of scholarly works on the war colloquially known as the “Green Books.” The WWII 60 historians interviewed people from all walks of life who were involved in the war, including civilians, but most were military personnel. They inquired about a number of topics, including, among other things, training, logistics, and weapons. For this study, the .key question was: What was the type of leadership that was displayed during those critical hours, days and weeks that spanned the Normandy Invasion? I have conducted a descriptive case study (Berg, 2007) of the histories of the D- Day 60 Veterans. Using information thus collected, I acquired a better understanding of leadership theory, identified trends in leadership during crises, and developed a broader understanding and improved theoretical knowledge for understanding and developing leadership. Using examples from the oral histories, I looked for different patterns of leadership approaches that emerged in life and death, combat, and high-intensity training 1 situations. Using modern theoretical approaches in leadership discussion as well as my own leadership theory framework, I analyzed the situation and present the results in this work. 2 CHAPTER 2 THE LONG ROAD TO THE NORMANDY LANDINGS It was the famed German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel who first described the 6th of June 1944 as “The Longest Day” (Zabecki, 1999). Wielding combined forces of 2,876,000 soldiers, sailors and airmen, along with 11,000 aircraft and ships, the Allies attacked. Nearly 200,000 soldiers swarmed ashore in the initial days and weeks of the Normandy Campaign (Stokesbury, 1980; Brinkley, 2006). The objective was only about twenty-five