The horrors of trench justice

IT was about 2.15am on November 27, 1916, and Lieutenant Mundy and Lance Sergeant Stones were touring the sentry posts on the forward line. After visiting Post A, they entered a British-held mine crater on the way to Post B. Just inside the crater, they ran into a party of German raiders.

"There was a shot, Mr Mundy fell, 'My God, I'm shot. For God's sake sergeant go for help and tell Mr Howes.' I did so," L Sgt Stones told his court martial. "I came to a dug-out before I got to company HQ and I gave the alarm there also."

When L Sgt Stones was stopped by the battle police, men posted to control movements in and out of the front line, he was more than three quarters of a kilometre behind the line. He was also without his rifle. It was this last fact, and not that he had left a dying officer or that he did not return to the front line after raising the alarm, which sealed his fate.

On December 24, Christmas Eve, Lance Sergeant Joseph William (Willie) Stones was found guilty of casting away his arms and running away from the front line. Just over three weeks later, on January 18, he was executed. He was the only soldier on the Western Front, and one of only two in the entire First World War, to be charged with the offence of throwing away arms.

L Sgt Stones was a 23-year-old miner when he enlisted into the Durham Light Infantry at West Hartlepool in March 1915. But it was only after the rules were changed that he was allowed to join up.

On the outbreak of war, the minimum height requirement for army recruits was five feet three inches. L Sgt Stones was five feet two inches. But many smaller men, particularly from industrial and mining areas, had wanted to join up and eventually War Minister Lord Kitchener was persuaded to allow the raising of a "Bantam" battalion.

Men between five feet and five feet three would be accepted, provided they had a minimum chest measurement of 34 inches, to ensure they were sturdy men. The response was huge, and led to the creation of a series of battalions, including the 19th DLI, which made up the 35th (Bantam) Division. The first Bantams arrived in France in late January, early February 1916, and were soon sent to the Somme.

AT the end of August, 1916, the Bantam Division was moved from the Somme to near Arras, where they held I, J and K sectors. In K2 subsector in front of the village of Roclincourt, held by the 19th DLI, the two lines were very close, with one British-held crater just 50 yards from the enemy.

After the losses on the Somme, the quality of recruits fell short of the physical standard required, raising concerns among commanding officers about the Bantams' ability to hold the line. But the night of November 26/27 proved to be the end of the Bantam experiment, the last in which they took part as a division.

As well as the incident involving L Sgt Stones, sentries at two other posts left the front line, and a planned counter-attack ended in disaster when the men retreated after being shelled by their own artillery. It was a shambles, and the 19th DLI came out of it particularly poorly.

L Sgt Stones told his court martial that when Lt Mundy was shot in the crater, he didn't fire because his safety catch was on and the cover was on the breech of his gun.

He said: "As I turned to go, the Huns were stepping over Mr Mundy. I put my rifle across the trench so as to stop them from getting across at me so that I could get a lead of them to warn the men."

With his rifle blocking the trench and holding up the Germans, he said he went to warn another sentry post, and then went to find the cooks to warn them. He had reported to company HQ, and to the Company Sergeant Major, but when he was ordered to return to the front line his legs had given way and he was unable to walk properly.

But Sgt Foster, of the regimental battle police, gave evidence that L Sgt Stones was exhausted and trembling. An entry in the Division's war diary noted that L Sgt Stones was "in a pitiable state of terror".

Despite evidence of good character, no proof that he had dropped his rifle in terror, and a submission from the defence that at no point had he tried to hide, L Sgt Stones was found guilty with no recommendation of mercy. After his execution, his widow Isabel was told she was not entitled to a pension, leaving her with no means of providing for her two children.

Full details of L Sgt Stones's case are included in a book which brings together the facts on the hundreds of executions carried out by British Army firing squads during the First World War for the first time. Blindfold and Alone, by military historian John Hughes-Wilson and scientist Cathryn Corns.

L Sgt Stones's death sentence was one of 26 imposed for the events of that night, although only three were carried out. By far the greatest number of executions - 266 - were for desertion, a problem which reached a peak in February 1915 with more than 3,000 desertions, before falling to around 1,000 a month for the rest of the war.

One of these deserters was Private William Nelson, of the 14th DLI. He was executed by firing squad at 5.15am on August 11, 1916. His court martial heard he had deserted three times, including once going absent for almost three weeks.

Pte Nelson told the court he had been having trouble at home, which had upset his nerves and left him not knowing what he was doing.

In a statement on oath he said: "My father is a prisoner in Germany and is losing his eyesight... My mother died while I was still in England, leaving my sister aged 13 and my brother aged ten. I am the only one left. I had to leave them in charge of a neighbour." But he got no sympathy.

Although the majority of executions were for desertion, there were a number of other capital crimes. Corporal Jesse Short, of the 24th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers, was one of only three men in the British Army executed for mutiny, for his role in the "Bull Ring Mutiny" of September 1917, which was to feature in the TV drama The Monocled Mutineer.

Cpl Short was based at Etaples, the British Army's principal depot, behind the lines at Boulogne. On September 9, it was the scene of a disturbance when a crowd of soldiers started jostling military policemen who were escorting a prisoner. One of the MPs fired his gun to scare the crowd, accidentally killing a Gordon Highlander. The situation then turned ugly, as the soldiers went for the MPs, who fled.

As order broke down, the soldiers surged towards the town, but although they dispersed at night, they gathered again the next day, forcing their way into the town. The following day, the same thing occurred. By this point, the military authorities were becoming concerned at a breakdown in discipline, extra troops were called in and issued with live ammunition.

CPL Short had been involved in a scuffle on the bridge into town on September 11. The following day, he faced a court martial, where he was charged with mutiny.

According to the commander of the bridge guard post, Captain EF Wilkinson, he had been trying to get the guard force to stand firm against the soldiers trying to push through, when the accused came out of the crowd and urged the guards not to listen to their commander, instead saying: "What you want to do to that bugger is to put a stone around his neck and throw him in the river."

Short moved away, but, perhaps foolishly, then returned and was arrested. His defence was that he had been drunk at the time, but several witnesses testified that he had appeared lucid.

In the knowledge that the French and Russian armies had recently suffered serious mutinies, Field Marshal Douglas Haig, commander of the British Expeditionary Force, confirmed the sentence on September 30, and on October 4 Cpl Short was executed. Of the 50-odd men court martialled at Etaples, only four were charged with mutiny, and Cpl Short was the only one executed. He was the last British mutineer to be executed in the Great War.

l Blindfold and Alone by Cathryn Corns and John Hughes-Wilson (Cassell) £10.99