STRANGE REVELATIONS

Southland Times, Issue 19575, 12 June 1925, Page 5

STRANGE REVELATIONS

A WAR ECHO FRENCH SOLDIER’S EXPERIENCES LEFT FOR DEAD BY FIRING SQUAD. (Bj r Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) PARIS, June 10. (Received June 11, 5.5 p.m.) 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 front line trenches was surprised by a German night attack, and fled in momentary panic. The 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 his 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 the 33rd Regiment, and said he was one of the condemned men, and that he fell on hearing the word “Fire.” Hours after he recovered consciousness, and found he was uninjured. The commander of the 33rd Regiment sheltered the man, who was killed in action ten months later, fighting under an assumed name.