----- Original Message ----- From: Rick Rozoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, February 11, 2001 12:38 PM Subject: British Humanitarian Intervention: Chapter One [STOPNATO.ORG.UK] STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Try Tellme! Call 1-800-555-TELL News, weather, restaurants...& much more. BONUS: make FREE long distance calls! http://on.linkexchange.com/?ATID'&AID!45 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ["It was a class issue. If you were in the ranks, then you were shot....If you were supposedly a gentleman, then you were sent home for rest and recuperation in the bosom of your family....There is even evidence that some senior officers believed in a kind of 'frontline eugenics' and used executons as a way of culling the weak and unfit."] War leader had officers shot 'to goad troops' Jason Burke Sunday February 11, 2001 The Observer Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, the First World War commander, issued orders that more officers should be executed for cowardice in a bid to strengthen the 'fighting spirit' of his troops, new evidence has revealed. Haig - along with other senior generals - said that military courts were being too lenient with officers convicted of cowardice or desertion. Less than two months after his orders were circulated, the first British officer to be condemned to death for alleged cowardice, 21-year-old Edwin Dyett, was shot at dawn in France. Dyett said he had got lost in no-man's-land but was convicted of desertion. A few weeks later a second young officer was executed. The new evidence will boost demands, recently rejected by the Government, for a pardon for the 306 British servicemen executed in the First World War. Opponents of the move have called it 'sentimental and ignorant'. John Hipkin, leader of the pardons campaign, said the new evidence 'basically explains why a number of innocent young men died. It's a missing link'. Haig's hardline stance was revealed during research by historian and author Lawrence James and is featured in BBC History magazine next week. James found a reference to the command in the unpublished five-volume diary of Major-General Sir Aylmer Haldane, a senior officer who fought in the Boer War before commanding a brigade in the 1914-18 conflict. Haldane often commanded actions from positions in the trenches and knew the reality of contemporary battle. In October 1916, in the aftermath of the Somme offensive, Haldane attended a conference for senior staff at a château behind the lines. His diary records that his commanding officer, Lieutenant-General Sir Edmund Allenby, 'read out confidential ... papers [from headquarters] regarding leniency that courts martial were showing to officers tried for offences for which men were shot.' The order clearly said that more officers should be executed. Andrew MacKinlay, MP for Thurrock and a key campaigner for a pardon for executed 'deserters', said the reference revealed the contempt for life shown by the generals and the 'double standards' applied to officers and private soldiers by military judges. 'It was a class issue. If you were in the ranks, then you were shot ... If you were supposedly a gentleman, then you were sent home for rest and recuperation in the bosom of your family,' MacKinlay said. 'Haig clearly wanted to change that.' At the time of Haig's order there were growing concerns that the 'British fighting man' could not cope with the enormous stresses of modern warfare. By 1916 it was felt that harsher punishments were necessary to ensure what was seen as inspirational leadership in battle. After losses like those on the first day of the battle of the Somme (20,000 men killed, 40,000 wounded) confidence in officers was low. 'Despite the obvious patriotism, loyalty and sheer guts of the soldiers in the trenches, Haig and his staff continued to suspect that they were not up to the job,' said James last week. 'In fact, incidences of disobedience were very rare. Officers frequently led their men forward on almost suicidal missions, despite their serious misgivings.' There is even evidence that some senior officers believed in a kind of 'frontline eugenics' and used executions as a way of culling the weak and unfit. At the end of 1916, 20 men from the 35th Division, composed of unusually short men, so-called 'bantams', received death sentences. 'People say you shouldn't rewrite history, but when the truth is revealed by new evidence you must. A pardon is long overdue,' said Hipkin. ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
