For the Sake of Example: Capital Courts-Martial, 1914-1920

Rating:
Summary: Flawed but better than many others on the same subject...
Review: I agree with the previous reviewer. This book is one of the more reasonable of those arguing for pardons. It is certainly superior to "Shot at Dawn" which is a polemic that has unfortunately become the bible for the pardons movement in spite of numerous factual erros.

Regarding the previous reviewers comments regarding other armies and the death penalty.

NUMBER OF SOLDIERS EXECUTED BY OTHER EUROPEAN ARMIES:

ITALY: 750
FRANCE: 133
GERMANY: 48

The French and German statistics are not considered reliable, they merely represent the number of people we KNOW were shot. French and German records are not so complete as those available for the British and summary execution in the field was not so heavily frowned on. It should also be noted that French and German discipline and morale collapsed far more significantly that British.

In WW2 the Germans executed around 15,000 of their own men for desertion. The british did not maintain the death penalty for desertion and over 100,000 men deserted and by 1942 officers at all levels were calling for the death penalty's reinstatement. In addition, the Australian force in WW1 was not covered under the Army Act and so no Australians were executed. The desertion and indiscipline rates in the Australian Corps were well above those of British and Canadian formations. Almost 6 million men passed through the british Army in the course of WW1. Of these, 346 were executed, 37 of whom were executed for murder and 18 for cowardice. Of those shot for desertion, 40% had serious previous charges on a variety of offences and many had deserted either in 1914, before the war stagnated into trench battle or before the even got to the front for the first time. The image of a brave young conscript (the average age of those executed was 26 and the overwhelming majority were over 21) finally cracking psychologically after weeks spent under constant bombardment may be accurate in a tiny minority of cases but it is certainly not the general picture. There are cases where a pardon is definitely arguable but there simply is no case whatsoever for a blanket pardon. The idea that in shooting deserters (the vast majority of whom were not shot) the British Army was operating a policy of "legalised murder" is ludicrous.

Rating:
Summary: Flawed but better than many others on the same subject...
Review: In this book Babington tells the story of the many young soldiers executed by the British army during the First World War. The facts and stories behind each case are provided, as well as background information about the war. Many of the cases are chilling and tragic, and leave the reader wondering how he would have behaved in the circumstances. Overall, I feel this book has only two significant drawbacks. While interesting and informative, this book fails to put the debate about military capital punishment into a proper philosophical or intellectual framework. The author seems to assume that his readers will all share his disgust with the executions. But isn't there a place for such punishments during wartime? Are not disobedience, cowardice and desertion serious offenses? The system was certainly out of hand in the WWI army, but that does not mean that capital punishment must be done away with entirely. Of course, a society that finds it innapropriate to exclude gays from the military can hardly be expected to favor executions. I was also troubled by Babington's failure to tell us more about the punishments served out in other armies. As it is, he leaves this to a paragraph or two at the end of the book. Understandably he could not have covered this mater in too much detail, but greater effort could have been made to compare and contrast the situation in France and Germany with that of Great Britain. But these are fairly minor flaws. This is a good book about those unfortunate souls who lost their lives mostly for the sake of example.

Rating:
Summary: Good Coverage but Debate is Lacking
Review: In this book Babington tells the story of the many young soldiers executed by the British army during the First World War. The facts and stories behind each case are provided, as well as background information about the war. Many of the cases are chilling and tragic, and leave the reader wondering how he would have behaved in the circumstances. Overall, I feel this book has only two significant drawbacks. While interesting and informative, this book fails to put the debate about military capital punishment into a proper philosophical or intellectual framework. The author seems to assume that his readers will all share his disgust with the executions. But isn't there a place for such punishments during wartime? Are not disobedience, cowardice and desertion serious offenses? The system was certainly out of hand in the WWI army, but that does not mean that capital punishment must be done away with entirely. Of course, a society that finds it innapropriate to exclude gays from the military can hardly be expected to favor executions. I was also troubled by Babington's failure to tell us more about the punishments served out in other armies. As it is, he leaves this to a paragraph or two at the end of the book. Understandably he could not have covered this mater in too much detail, but greater effort could have been made to compare and contrast the situation in France and Germany with that of Great Britain. But these are fairly minor flaws. This is a good book about those unfortunate souls who lost their lives mostly for the sake of example.