FACE A GUN
FACE A GUN
How many soldiers were court-martialled,
shot dead, coz of an error of judgement?
“You Private! Take that forty litres of water to A Platoon.”
Fog of war and shell shock.
No water and a bullet in the head.
Of 317 British soldiers in our war to end all wars,
were any of them like the above?
Executed for cowardice in the face of the enemy.
Running scared or an error of judgement.
When the next big war comes who will be scared
and who will make a mistake?
A human mistake under the gun,
to face a gun.
M.C. Newberry
Thu 23rd Jan 2014 12:33
Who can really know what it is to witness the
death and dismemberment all around while
under continual bombardment...face it hour after
hour...only to "break" in a moment's unimaginable mental torture.
I like to think that many others were
saved from themselves by the actions of their
comrades who really were "all in it together".
They were different times and the thinking at
the end of the day was that such conduct -
however explainable to day - was likely to
affect the morale of the rest and, perhaps,
see mass retreat - with the prospect of ultimate
defeat. Unthinkable - hence the awful military
resort to the firing squad. But remember -
there have been others since - like the Soviet
officers employed behind their advancing troops
to shoot the less enthusiastic, let alone the
deserters in the battles of WW2. Again, the
ultimate need for victory decided the tactics.
Such is the tyranny of war!