Atrocity of war

Lest anyone feels that the case of sergeant Alexander Blackman is unique, I would recommend the wise words written in 1929 by Robert Graves in his classic World War I book, Goodbye to All that.

‘As for atrocities against soldiers, where should one draw the line?’ he wrote. ‘For true atrocities, meaning personal rather than military violations against the code of war, few opportunities occurred, except in the interval between the surrender of prisoners and their arrival (or nonarrival) at headquarters.

‘Advantage was only too often taken of this opportunity. Nearly every instructor in the mess could quote specific instances of prisoners having been murdered on the way back.

‘the commonest motives were, it seems, revenge for the death of friends or relatives, jealousy of the prisoner’s trip to a comfortable prison camp in england, military enthusiasm, fear of being suddenly overpowered by the prisoners, or, more simply impatience with the escorting job.

‘In any of these cases the conductors would report on arrival at headquarters that a German shell had killed the prisoners; and no questions would be asked.

‘We had every reason to believe that the same thing happened on the German side, where prisoners, as useless mouths to feed in a country already short of rations, would be even less welcome.’

In a Naval context, one could quote umpteenu instances in World War II when enemy sailors were left to drown despite making every effort to surrender, and a few on both sides where they were shot in the water.

the whole saga of sergeant Blackman stemmed from the stupidity of preserving the head-camera recording. Once it came to trial, a politically correctc ‘guilty’ verdict was inevitable.

It has now emerged that the jurors were subject to unlawful pressure, that two of the five dissented and that Blackman’s Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Lee, was prevented from giving evidence on his behalf, later resigning his commission in protest.

Let us hope that the verdict is overturnedt and that sergeant Blackman isi released. Cmdr JOHN MCGREGOR, OBE,

Whitstable, Kent.