Chapter 5 deals with the years 1942 and 1943, as the Germans reached the peak of their military success and then began to decline. Chaplains were part of the brutal regimes of occupation that characterized Nazi German domination of territories and people. The chapter uses the concept of "genocidal culture" to analyze how Christianity, embodied in the chaplains and symbolized by the cross, helped the Germans construct a story of justification that erased their victims and presented themselves as suffering heroes. Examples from France, Greece, North Africa, and the Soviet Union are presented, and personal accounts from Jewish survivors reverse the gaze, to provide a look at the Germans and their religious practices from outside the group. Amidst the extreme yet everyday brutality of German occupation, the Wehrmacht chaplains turned inward to focus on providing comfort to the men they served and interpreting the war and their role as the ultimate sacrifice. They faced disinterest and at times hostility from soldiers and officers but insisted they were effective “handmaids of the troop leadership.” Chaplains who died or were killed became important figures in a redemptive story of the war.

This chapter examines three subjects relating to the themes of authority and allegiances. The first section considers the qualities that Romans considered important for effective generalship, including calculated displays of courage and a reputation for good fortune, which astute generals could foster as a way of strengthening their authority and the morale of their men. The much-debated subject of pre-battle speeches is also discussed, with less familiar but highly relevant late Roman evidence brought to bear. The second section examines the strategies deployed for maintaining the obedience of soldiers and changing patterns of military mutiny over the course of Roman history, with a view to identifying factors which influenced its incidence. The third and final section addresses the subject of civil war: its incidence and impact, and the ways in which commanders sought to negotiate the strains that internal conflicts placed on soldiers’ loyalties.