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ginnylambda's review against another edition
The first execution of a soldier by Britain in the First World War occurred some six weeks into the war. Thomas Highgate was 19 and had 45 minutes between being notified of his sentence and being shot by a firing squad.
Today we know many of the executed were suffering from shell shock or had mental disabilities that prevented them from behaving as they were expected to, in a situation that left even hale and mentally stable men in shambles.
There are already books about the personal lives and background of the British and Commonwealth soldiers who were executed during WWI, including their crimes. Johnson acknowledges these resources and instead sets out to examine the military rules that lead to the execution orders and the exact details of the executions - where the soldier was held for how long, how the firing squads were chosen, the role of chaplains, and the variations in process we can discern for the 306 recorded executions, as well as the process of pardoning them nearly 100 years later.
Johnson presents things as neutrally as possible and lets the firsthand accounts speak for themselves for the most part. He does frequently acknowledge, however, that the facts are horrifying and the executions affected more than the victim and their family. It was not simply that a firing squad was likely to be made up of men from the prisoner's own detachment, but could be men undergoing Field Punishment and even at-hand wounded who were able to operate a rifle. The blindfold was anecdotally more to spare the firing squad from seeing the man's face and misfiring, rather than to be humane to the victim.
It is difficult to read the firsthand accounts, and strange to read the words of those who supported military capital punishment. The very culture that demanded such high military standards and punishments also encouraged silencing one's misgivings and doubts about the process. To a degree it is telling that 90% of soldiers convicted of capital offences had their death sentences commuted. But to say so does not lend a speck of humanity to the executions. Johnson emphasizes over and over that the men in the firing squads had gone to war expecting to kill Germans, not their own friends.
The strange balance between acknowledging how deeply disturbing the whole process was with maintaining a characteristic stiff upper is best illustrated by the first three lines of the letter in Appendix 4. Private Albert Troughton wrote to his family before his April 22, 1915 execution:
"Dear Mother, and Father, Sisters and Brothers,
Just a few lines to let you know I am in the best of health and hope you are mother. I am sorry to have to tell you that I am to be shot tomorrow at 7 o'clock in the morning the 22nd April. I hope you will take it in good part and not upset yourself..."
I find it hard to imagine Johnson could have presented any piece of history regarding the executions that is more appalling or truer to the form of the day. Troughton reassures his family he is in good health but is about to be executed by his own country. He is sorry to be the one telling them, not that he is going to die. By April 1915 his family may not have felt how much danger he was in and would have worried for his safe return. A letter assuring them of his good health would be welcome - but it is also a letter telling them he is condemned to death. At the last he is asking them to maintain an expected air of resolution in the face of his loss.
Johnson's book tries to acknowledge the resolution felt by those watching the mechanisms of the court martials and death sentences pass. I take comfort in viewing his book as declining to be resolute and accepting in the face of an emotional topic of history. We cannot turn off that part of ourselves that is grieving and horrified, 100 years later, and to continue examine the causes and processes of those horrors is perhaps one way of coming to terms with them.
Today we know many of the executed were suffering from shell shock or had mental disabilities that prevented them from behaving as they were expected to, in a situation that left even hale and mentally stable men in shambles.
There are already books about the personal lives and background of the British and Commonwealth soldiers who were executed during WWI, including their crimes. Johnson acknowledges these resources and instead sets out to examine the military rules that lead to the execution orders and the exact details of the executions - where the soldier was held for how long, how the firing squads were chosen, the role of chaplains, and the variations in process we can discern for the 306 recorded executions, as well as the process of pardoning them nearly 100 years later.
Johnson presents things as neutrally as possible and lets the firsthand accounts speak for themselves for the most part. He does frequently acknowledge, however, that the facts are horrifying and the executions affected more than the victim and their family. It was not simply that a firing squad was likely to be made up of men from the prisoner's own detachment, but could be men undergoing Field Punishment and even at-hand wounded who were able to operate a rifle. The blindfold was anecdotally more to spare the firing squad from seeing the man's face and misfiring, rather than to be humane to the victim.
It is difficult to read the firsthand accounts, and strange to read the words of those who supported military capital punishment. The very culture that demanded such high military standards and punishments also encouraged silencing one's misgivings and doubts about the process. To a degree it is telling that 90% of soldiers convicted of capital offences had their death sentences commuted. But to say so does not lend a speck of humanity to the executions. Johnson emphasizes over and over that the men in the firing squads had gone to war expecting to kill Germans, not their own friends.
The strange balance between acknowledging how deeply disturbing the whole process was with maintaining a characteristic stiff upper is best illustrated by the first three lines of the letter in Appendix 4. Private Albert Troughton wrote to his family before his April 22, 1915 execution:
"Dear Mother, and Father, Sisters and Brothers,
Just a few lines to let you know I am in the best of health and hope you are mother. I am sorry to have to tell you that I am to be shot tomorrow at 7 o'clock in the morning the 22nd April. I hope you will take it in good part and not upset yourself..."
I find it hard to imagine Johnson could have presented any piece of history regarding the executions that is more appalling or truer to the form of the day. Troughton reassures his family he is in good health but is about to be executed by his own country. He is sorry to be the one telling them, not that he is going to die. By April 1915 his family may not have felt how much danger he was in and would have worried for his safe return. A letter assuring them of his good health would be welcome - but it is also a letter telling them he is condemned to death. At the last he is asking them to maintain an expected air of resolution in the face of his loss.
Johnson's book tries to acknowledge the resolution felt by those watching the mechanisms of the court martials and death sentences pass. I take comfort in viewing his book as declining to be resolute and accepting in the face of an emotional topic of history. We cannot turn off that part of ourselves that is grieving and horrified, 100 years later, and to continue examine the causes and processes of those horrors is perhaps one way of coming to terms with them.
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