Initial Officer Selection

[JMA]

You're obviously thinking of leading officers, but many(if not most) are rather specialists - either for staffs or for technicalities.

Yes, probably mainly 'teeth arm' officers (infantry/armour) than other.

The German army hires medical doctors, construction engineers (bridge-building expertise for army engineers!) and the like whom it doesn't produce in its own university system (which is more about business, engineering, psychology etc). These fully-educated people could earn 60,000-100,000 € p.a. in civil jobs and need to get at least a respectable rank and associated pay or you'll only get the worst graduates. Afaik these officers entry around captain/major rank and reach LtCol quite easily (medical staff is very high-ranked in Germany). You basically give them a quick entry training about their powers and limits and then you've got a ready officer with a very much needed special proficiency.

This thread appears to focus on officers for leadership instead of officers for very education-intensive jobs. Maybe the title should be modified.

Again. yes. Direct entry by qualification is necessary for the likes of medical staff etc and yes there will be times when their pay may well be higher than the equivalent infantry officer of the same rank. For example the medical officer in a battalion can never be more than a major (as the CO is a Lt Col) but he may fall on a totally different pay scale.

By the way, about company and Plt NCOs beign the backbone of an army: There was a time in germany when even Lt Generals in command of a division were competent enough to spot training deficiencies down to lack of navigation skill or skill with emplacing a machine gun on inspections (reminds me also of an American general who lead a platoon in an assault on a building during WW2 in order to teach the Lt how to do it). A very good basic soldiering competency of leading officers (Truppenoffizier) is certainly a great advantage.

One certainly hopes that officers will retain their 'eye' for detail as they rise up the ranks.

In war time with general mobilisation the quality control thing starts to fall apart. But then the last two Brit Lt Cols (Jones and Thorneloe) to be KIA were way to far 'up front' for their rank and died needlessly.

The value of the NCO structure is making sure the 'blunt instrument' know as the infantry platoon can carry out their mission in unison with many other platoons simultaneously and with control and coherence. One leading officer no matter how proficient or experienced can do this alone.

Young officers at platoon/troop level have at best three years of platoon commanding (in my war - but it seems less in others these days). The NCOs spend much more time at this level and like with old wine they just get better with age (and experience). My contention is that this (platoon) structure (through which young officers fleetingly pass) must be protected and maintained at all costs.

(This said about the opportunity to command a platoon in battle should be what every young officer dreams of. I really can't believe that any 'bright eyed and bushytailed' young officer would be satisfied with getting a sniff of combat command for six months and then return to peacetime soldiering at home.)