Were the causes of battle fatigue in world war 2 the same as those of the Vietnam war?

Answer 1

For the most part they would be essentially same if you consider those conditions which were "equal." However there were not many like scenarios to be compared.

The more recent Vietnam War had numerous chemical agents involved that were not around during World War 2. These are believed to have had an affect on many of the veterans during that war.

The earlier battle in the Pacific included huge numbers of American troops who were mobilitzed and quickly enroute to set up base camps in unknown "tropical" zone, remote, sometimes uninhabited, sometimes inhabited with cannibals, and wild animlas they had never heard about. Many were first dropped in Northern Australia. The stress of being under alert 24/7 was crushing. The Japanese attacked from their nust northern islands to which they had only just laid claim and taken over...or from those fortifications illegally built during the 20's and '30's.

The boys of the 22nd Bomb Group, 5th Air Corrps, were sent on almost daily, sometimes nightly missions, to reclaim island ports previously taken from the depleted forces of the brave Australian units. The battle fatigue on these boys took its toll in slow, lumbering, often unsafe medium range bombers carrying full loads of both fuel and bombs over shark infested waters. Many a B-26 did not come back.

Let's not forget the stress of mosquitoes the size of silver dollars, which bred malaria in droves. Stress was there being either a shortage of anti-malaria pills or, after the fevers and chills struck, there being any quinine and other medications. Many of the troops couldn't been flown out for the constant bombings of their makeshift airstrips which had been bulldozed and consisted of dirt.