WAR EXECUTIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19504, 12 June 1925, Page 7

WAR EXECUTIONS

TRAGIC STORY REVEALED. DISCIPLINE IN DRENCH APPLY. Pres i Association—By Telegraph—Copyright.. PARIS, June 10; There was a strange revelation in the Douai Court, which was hearing an appeal to rehabilitate the memory of seven soldiers who were executed in September, 1914. A French battalion in the frontline trenches was surprised by a German night attack, and fled in momentary panic. Tho stragglers, at dawn, met a French general, who ordered a subaltern to select a corporal and six men for immediate execution, including a man who fell on Iris knees pleading that he was married, with four children. The general, however, was merciless. The seven were apparently shot next day. Later a half-demented man stumbled into the quarters of tho 33rd Regiment, and said he was one of the condemned men, and that ho fell on hearing the word ‘‘Fire.’’ Hours after ho recovered consciousness, and found he was uninjured. Tho commander of tho 33rd Regiment sheltered the man, who was killed in action 10 months later, fighting under an assumed name. —A. and N.Z. Cable.