MoD seeks 300 WWI soldier pardons

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4796579.stm

I've seen this debated before and it would seem our kiss ass monkey government has pulled their finger out and done something good for once.

I always said that it is wrong for me and others of my generation to say shooting for cowadice is wrong becuase the world is grey and that is a black and white answer. In WW1 there were a lot of problems and a lot of men and no one knows what would have happened had the army not shot people for going awol or disobeying orders.

However as they said, unfortunatly they shot some, maybe a lot, of innocent people who were genuinly ill with PTSD/Combat Stress or Shell Shock (what ever you wish to call it) and it is now impossable to say who they found guilty correctly and who they fluffed it with.

So it is best that all be pardened and the book can be closed.

FNG

 

The counter arguement might run that this is that this is historical revisionism. I doubt that the condition of shell shock was even recognised at the time. Let us be brutally honest and admit some probably did deserve to be shot.

I've just started reading a book called Mud, Blood and Poppycock. Only a few pages in but it does mention that over 2000 British soldiers were sentenced to dead but the majority were commuted.

 

I agree that some if not the majority of the convictions are probably fair, as for the shooting, well I am against capital punishment but it is wrong for me to hold my morals up against those of a time past.

But looking back it is fairer to quash all the convictions as in the greater shceme of things it makes little difference now to anyone other than those families affected.

FNG

 

It could set legal precident.

 

Shell shock wasn't understood at the time so I can understand the reasons behind it....

BUT....for cryin' out loud. These guys were your men! That and if all your guys are dead who's gonna fight the enemy?

 

They are deserters. deserters must be shot to disuade others from deserting. At least, that is the theory behind it.

 

clauswitz said ..its not hard to get men to go into battle...its hard to get them to go back into battle....green troops ,unstable allies?...u box them in out front surrounded by your good troops....decimation...a roman legion that broke and ran ...count off by tens ..tenth man to be beaten to death by his comrads with swoard butts..the swoard point being too good for him...

 

And to put this point through they were often shot by there own squad mates.