The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1918-05-17
0FFENSES AGAINST COMBAT.
ANTS.

OFFENSES AGAINST COMBAT.
ANTS.
(a) The Killing of the Wounded and
of Prisoners.
| In dealing with the treatment OF
the wounded and of prisoners and
the cases in which the former appear
| to have been killed when helpless,
and the latter at, or after, the mo-
ment of capture, we are met by some
peculiar difficulties, because such
acts may not in all cases be delib-
crate and cold-blooded violations of
| the usages of war. Soldiers who are
advancing over spot where the
| wounded have fallen may conceiv-
ably think that some of these lying
PROSTATE are sha mining dead, or, at
any rate, are so slightly wounded as
to be able to attack or to fire from
behind when the advancing force
has passed, and thus they may be led
into killing those whom they would
otherwise have spared. There will
also be instances in which men in
toxicated with the frenzy of battle
slay even those whom on reflection
they might have seen to be incapa-
BILE of further harming them. The
same kind of fury may vent itself
on persons who are already surren-
dering, and even soldier who is
usually self-controlled or humane
may, in the heat of the Int, go
on killing, especially@fm general
melee, those who were offering to
surrender. This is most likely to
happen when such a soldier has been
incensed by an act of trcachery or
is stirred to revenge by the death of
a comrade to whom ne is attached.
Some cases of this kind appear in
the evidence. Such things happen
in ell wars as isolated instances, and
the circumstances may be pleaded
in extenuation of acts otherwise
shocking. We have made due allow
ance for these considerations and
have rejected those cases in which |
there is q reasonable doubt as to |
whether those who killed the wound |
ed knew that the latter were COM
pletely disabled. Nevertheless, after
all allowances, there remain
certain instances in which it is clear
that quarter was refused to persons
desiring to surrender when it ought
to have been given, or that persons
so wounded as to be in
capable of fighting further were
shot or bayoneted.
The cases to which references are
given all present features generally
similar, and in several of them men
who had been left wounded in the
trenches when trench was carried
by the enemy were found, when
heir comrades subsequently retook
he trench, to have been slaughter
I'd, although evidently helpless, or
Else they would have escaped with
he rest of the retrecting force. For
Instance, a witness says:
About Sept. 20 our regiment took
)art in an engagement with the Ger {
mans. After we had retired into
ur trenches, few minutes after we {
,ot back into Them, the Germans re- s
ired into their trenches. The dis
ance between the trenches of the I
pposing forces was about 400 yards. |
should say about fifty or sixty of
ur men had been left lying on the c
eld from our trenches. After we /
OF to them l distinctly saw Ger I
ian soldiers come out of their v
go over the spots where our
len were lying, and bayonet them. e
ONE of our men were lying nearly t
alf way between the trenches" f
Another says: C
THE Germans advanced over the t.
'enches of the headquarters trench, il
here | had been on guard for three t
avs. When the Germans reached G
1T wounded l saw their officer using D
is sword two cut them down." d
Another witness says: +
Outside Ypres we were in
enches and were attacked, and had
} retire until reinforced by other
of the Royal Fusiliers.
hen we took the trenches and found a.
Ie wounded, between twenty and
lirty, lying in the trenches with b.
lyonet wounds, and some shot. 81
ost of them, say three-quarters, h
I'd their throats cut" C
In one case, given very circum- a,
a witness tells how a m
Lrty of wounded British soldiers in
ere left in chalk pit, all very
'oiJ hui u anu QulIS uudUlS W Hdhe ps
sistance. One of them, an officer, to
Id up his handkerchief as white r
.g, and this gl
ttracted the attention of a party
about eight Germans. The Ger of
ans came to the edge of the pit. to
was getting dusk, but the light of
IS still good, and everything clear
discernible One of them, who ap- w
ared to be carrying no arms and Sc
10, at any rate, had no rifle, came m
few feet down the slope into the do
ak pit, within eight or ten yards CT
some of the wounded men," m;
He looked at the men, laughed, ou
d said something in German to of