Deserters

choi

Andrew Roberts, Farewell, Front Lines; In World War II, some 100,000 Britons and 50,000 Americans of 'the Greatest Generation' deserted their posts. Wall Street Journal, July 22, 2013
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB ... 14071954417756.html
(book review on Charles Glass, The Deserters; A hidden story of World War II. Penguin, 2013)

Quote:

"Since only one American soldier—Edward 'Eddie' Slovik—was executed for desertion during [World War II] * * * Slovik was unlucky in his timing—he deserted in northern France in October 1944 and his trial the next month took place during the Battle of the Bulge. But 49 other Americans who were condemned to death during the war avoided the firing squad. Place Pvt. Slovik beside the 13,500 Russians—enough for an entire division—who were executed by the NKVD for desertion and cowardice during the battle of Stalingrad alone and you have a neat dichotomy between the value placed on life between the US and the Soviet Union. Nor was Slovik's execution performed pour encourager les autres, since the fact of it was only made public in 1948")

"Although the British extended a general amnesty for desertion in 1953, the US never did.

Note:
(a)  about quotation 1
(i) Eddie Slovik
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Slovik
(1920-1945; the only American soldier to be court-martialled and executed for desertion since the American Civil War)
Battle of the Bulge
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Bulge
(Dec 16, 1944-Jan 25, 1945; Result  Decisive Allied victory)
(b) "A British counterpart was John Bain, who later wrote poetry under the name of Vernon Scannell. He walked away from his service with the Gordon Highlanders in North Africa and Normandy no fewer than three times."

Gordon Highlanders
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Highlanders
(a British Army infantry regiment from 1881 until 1994; The regiment took its name from the Clan Gordon and recruited principally from Aberdeen and the North-East of Scotland)