Field punishment Field punishment in general refers to military punishments used " in the field " , while a unit is on active service during war time . More specifically , it usually refers to " Field Punishment Number One " , a common punishment by the British and Commonwealth armies during World War I . World War I - British and Commonwealth armies . Field Punishment was introduced in 1881 following the abolition of flogging , and was a common punishment during World War I . A commanding officer could award field punishment for up to 28 days , while a court martial could award it for up to 90 days , either as Field Punishment Number One or Field Punishment Number Two . Field Punishment Number One , often abbreviated to " F . P . No . 1 " or even just " No . 1 " , consisted of the convicted man being placed in fetters and handcuffs or similar restraints and attached to a fixed object , such as a gun wheel , for up to two hours per day . During the early part of World War I , the punishment was often applied with the arms stretched out and the legs tied together , giving rise to the nickname " crucifixion " . This was applied for up to three days out of four , up to 21 days total . It was usually applied in field punishment camps set up for this purpose a few miles behind the front line , but when the unit was on the move it would be carried out by the unit itself . It has been alleged that this punishment was sometimes applied within range of enemy fire . During World War I Field Punishment Number One was issued by the British Army on 60210 occasions . Conscientious objector s who had been conscripted to the army were treated the same as any other soldier , so when they consistently refused to obey orders they were usually given Field Punishment No . 1 . Alfred Evans , who was sent to France where he would be sentenced to death ( later commuted ) with 34 others claimed that " it was very uncomfortable , but certainly not humiliating " . Some conscientious objectors even saw F . P . No . 1 as a badge of honour . Although the 1914 Manual of Military Law specifically stated that Field Punishment should not be applied in such a way as to cause physical harm , in practice abuses were commonplace . For example the prisoner would deliberately be placed in stress positions , with his feet not fully touching the ground . The New Zealand conscientious objector Archibald Baxter gave a particularly graphic account of his experience with Field Punishment No . 1 in his autobiography " We Will Not Cease " . In Field Punishment Number Two , the prisoner was placed in fetters and handcuffs but was not attached to a fixed object and was still able to march with his unit . This was a relatively tolerable punishment . In both forms of field punishment , the soldier was also subjected to hard labour and loss of pay . Field Punishment Number One was eventually abolished in 1923 , when an amendment to the Army Act which specifically forbade attachment to a fixed object was passed by the House of Lords . However physical restraint remained a theoretical ( though rarely imposed ) possibility . Vietnam War . According to author Paul Ham , Australian soldiers caught asleep on sentry duty in the Vietnam War , would be sentenced to 28 days ' field punishment usually in the form of hard labour and would lose one weeks pay . On its first tour of Vietnam the Australian 105th Field Battery came under much media scrutiny as a result of the “ O ’ Neill affair ” . In February 1966 20 year - old Gunner Peter O ’ Neill , who had been absent without leave when rostered for guard duty , failed to appear on a field punishment parade . The battery commander , Major Peter Tedder had ordered O ’ Neill to be handcuffed to a metal stake in a weapons pit for 20 days at the Bien Hoa airbase . Gunner O ' Neill contends that Major Tedder refused his right to a trial by Court Martial as a result he refused the Major ' s punishment but he was released and flown to serve time in the army prison at Holsworthy outside Sydney when questions were raised in the Australian parliament . Following a visit by Gough Whitlam and a vote in parliament he was released forthwith . Major Tedder was Court Martialed but acquitted as Gunner O ' Neill did not give evidence and the illegal punishment had been condoned by a Superior officer . To date Gunner O ' Neill has not told his side of the story . New Zealand servicemen that served in the Vietnam War with V Force ( Vietnam Force ) were not exempt of field punishment with some finding themselves locked inside large shipping containers for considerable time in the sweltering heat . French Foreign Legion . The French Foreign Legion had its own Field punishment . A legionnaire in the 1990s , Gareth Carins witnessed this punishment first - hand . While in training , a recruit called Schuhmann was caught deserting the training camp . Carins in the book " Voices of the Foreign Legion : The French Foreign Legion in Its Own Words " described how he saw Schuhmann slumped at the bottom of a flag pole : " His wrists had been bound together behind the flag pole , as had his ankles , so that it was impossible to stand up , and he was forced into a sort of kneeling position . I could see blood on the side of his face . " In the book " Mouthful of Rocks : Through Africa and Corsica in the French Foreign Legion " former legionnaire and author Chris Jennings writes that recruits as a form of punishment , had to dig graves in frozen soil , where the man would then spend the night , buried up to his head . Argentine forces . According to Ernesto Alonso , a senior member of the Centre of Former Malvinas Islands Combatants in La Plata ( CECIM ) , Argentine officers and NCOs ordered the staking out of several conscripts during the Falklands War . Most were 10th Brigade conscripts , and either had fallen asleep during guard duty or had gone absent without leave from their companies to steal from the food depots and locals in Port Stanley .