British war crimes

British war crimes are proven acts by the armed forces of the United Kingdom which have violated the laws and customs of war since the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907. Such acts have included the summary executions of prisoners of war and unarmed shipwreck survivors, the use of excessive force during the interrogation of POWs and enemy combatants, and the use of violence against civilian non-combatants and their property ‌.

Definition

War crimes are defined as acts which violate the laws and customs of war (established by the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907), or acts that are grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol I and Additional Protocol II.^[1] The Fourth Geneva Convention extends the protection of civilians and prisoners of war during military occupation, even in the case where there is no armed resistance, for the period of one year after the end of hostilities, although the occupying power should be bound to several provisions of the convention as long as "such Power exercises the functions of government in such territory."^[2][3]

The Manual of the Law of Armed Conflict published by the UK Ministry of Defence^[4] uses the 1945 definition from the Nuremberg Charter, which defines a war crime as "Violations of the laws or customs of war. Such violations shall include, but not be limited to, murder, ill-treatment or deportation to slave labour or for any other purpose of civilian population of or in occupied territory, murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war or persons on the seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity."^[1] The manual also notes that "violations of the 1949 Geneva Conventions not amounting to 'grave breaches' are also war crimes."

The 2004 Laws of Armed Combat Manual says

Serious violations of the law of armed conflict, other than those listed as grave breaches in the [1949 Geneva] Conventions or [the 1977 Additional Protocol I], remain war crimes and punishable as such. A distinction must be drawn between crimes established by treaty or convention and crimes under customary international law. Treaty crimes only bind parties to the treaty in question, whereas customary international law is binding on all states. Many treaty crimes are merely codifications of customary law and to that extent binding on all states, even those that are not parties.

The 2004 publication also notes that "A person is normally only guilty of a war crime if he commits it with intent and knowledge."^[5]

Boxer Rebellion

During the Boxer Rebellion of 1899-1901, including the aftermath of the Battle of Peking, troops from Britain committed war crimes while stationed in China. Author Bertram Lenox Simpson, who was in China at the time, reported that he came across "a whole company of savage-looking British and Indian troops" molesting a group of female converts "green-white with fear" while a lady missionary vainly tried to beat them off with an umbrella. British leaders and generals pointed out that looting by troops "was carried on in the most orderly manner and the houses of all those known to be friendly were protected." However, one British officer noted, "that it is one of the unwritten laws of war that a city which does not surrender at the last and is taken by storm is looted." For the rest of 1900-1901, the British held loot auctions everyday, except Sunday, in front of the main-gate to the British Legation at Peking. Many of stolen items ended up in Europe.^[6][7]

Boer War

During the Second Boer War, concentration camps were established initially for use by refugees. As part of the strategy to defeat the Boers, farms were destroyed including the systematic destruction of crops and slaughtering of livestock,^[8] the burning down of homesteads, poisoning of wells and salting of fields. This was to prevent the Boers from resupplying from a home base. 45 tented camps were created for Boers and 64 for black Africans. Tens of thousands of women and children were forcibly moved into the concentration camps via open cattle trucks in freezing rain during winter, without being given adequate food and water. Of the 107,000 people interned in the camps, 27,927 Boers died along with an unknown number of black Africans.^[9]

Breaker Morant

On 27 February 1902, two British Army officers — Lieutenants Harry Morant and Peter Handcock of the Bushveldt Carbineers — were executed by firing squad after being convicted of murdering eight Afrikaner POWs. Morant and Handcock had been acquitted of the sniper-style slaying of Reverend Daniel Heese, a Lutheran minister who had witnessed the massacre and threatened to inform their commanding officer.^[10]

Despite having left a written confession in his cell, Lieut. Morant has become a folk hero in modern Australia. Believed by many Australians to be the victim of a kangaroo court, public appeals have been made for Morant to be retried or even pardoned. His court-martial and death have been the subject of books, a stage play, and an award-winning Australian New Wave film adaptation by director Bruce Beresford.

In 2012, South African historian Charles Leach published the book The Legend of Breaker Morant is Dead and Buried: A South African version of the Bushveldt Carbineers in the Zoutpansberg MAY 1901 - APRIL 1902. Basing his conclusions upon the newly discovered court martial transcripts and documents held by descendants of their victims, Leach accused Lieuts. Morant and Handcock of a total of 35 murders. He further alleged that their actions had the tacit approval of Captain Alfred Taylor of military intelligence.

In response to his book, British Boer War historian Joe West wrote, "Charles Leach's impressive research has revealed that the crimes of Morant and his associates were worse than originally thought. In today's day and age Morant and Handcock plus several others would be arraigned before a War Crimes Tribunal."^[11]

World War I

According to American historian Alfred de Zayas, both sides during the Great War "established, for judicial and political reasons, special commissions to investigate reported instances of war crimes by enemy forces."^[12]

In contrast to their Allied counterparts, however, German investigators rarely publicized their findings for propaganda purposes.^[13] Furthermore, all except 11 volumes of the German Bureau's archives were destroyed during the 1945 Allied bombing raids on Berlin and Potsdam.^[14] For these reasons, British war crimes during the Great War remain less widely known than their German equivalents and are far more difficult to research.

Chemical weapons usage

The production and use of chemical weapons was strictly prohibited by the 1899 Hague Declaration Concerning Asphyxiating Gases and the 1907 Hague Convention on Land Warfare, which explicitly forbade the use of "poison or poisoned weapons" in warfare.^[15][16]

Even so, the United Kingdom used a range of poison gases, originally chlorine and later phosgene, diphosgene and mustard gas. They also used relatively small amounts of the irritant gases chloromethyl chloroformate, chloropicrin, bromacetone and ethyl iodoacetate. Gases were frequently mixed, for example white star was the name given to a mixture of equal volumes of chlorine and phosgene, the chlorine helping to spread the denser but more toxic phosgene. Despite the technical developments, chemical weapons suffered from diminishing effectiveness as the war progressed because of the protective equipment and training which the use engendered on both sides. By 1918, a quarter of British artillery shells were filled with gas and the United Kingdom had produced around 25,400 tons of toxic chemicals.

The British Expeditionary Force first used chemical weapons along the Western Front at the Battle of the Loos on 25 September 1915 and continued their usage for the remainder of the war. This was done in retaliation for the use of chlorine by Imperial German Army the preceding April. By the time of the Armistice, poison gas usage had become widespread on both sides.

Mustard gas was first used effectively in World War I by the German army against British and Canadian soldiers near Ypres, Belgium, in 1917 and later also against the French Second Army. The name Yperite comes from its usage by the German army near the town of Ypres. The Allies did not use mustard gas until November 1917 at Cambrai, France, after the armies had captured a stockpile of German mustard-gas shells. It took the British more than a year to develop their own mustard gas weapon, with production of the chemicals centred on Avonmouth Docks.^[17][18] (The only option available to the British was the Despretz–Niemann–Guthrie process). This was used first in September 1918 during the breaking of the Hindenburg Line with the Hundred Days' Offensive.

War Crimes at Sea

During the German U-boats campaign against unarmed, merchant shipping, there were numerous incidents in which the Royal Navy violated the Hague Convention of 1907's prohibition against killing unarmed shipwreck survivors under any circumstances. These incidents contributed directly to the Imperial German Navy's decision to cease adhering the Prize Rules and to practice unrestricted submarine warfare.

The Baralong Case

After the sinking of RMS Lusitania by the German submarine U-20 in May 1915, Lieutenant-Commander Godfrey Herbert, commanding officer of the Q-ship HMS Baralong, was visited by two officers of the Admiralty's Secret Service branch at the naval base at Queenstown, Ireland. He was told, "This Lusitania business is shocking. Unofficially, we are telling you ... take no prisoners from U-boats."^[19] Since April 1915, Herbert had ordered his subordinates cease calling him "Sir", and to address him only by the pseudonym "Captain William McBride."^[20]

On 19 August 1915, the German submarine U-27 surfaced, stopped, and searched the Nicosian, a British freighter, 70 nautical miles off the coast of Queenstown. After find the Nicosian loaded with war materiel and mules bound for the British Expeditionary Force in France, the U-27's commanding officer, Kapitänleutnant Bernhard Wegener, instructed the Nicosian's Captain and crew to take to the lifeboats.

As Wegener and his men prepared to sink the now-empty Nicosian with their deck gun, the Baralong arrived, flying the neutral American flag as a ruse of war. After lowering that flag and raising the British White Ensign in its place, Baralong's crew opened fire and sank the U-27.

Twelve German sailors survived the U-27's sinking: the crews of her two deck guns and those who had been on the conning tower. They swam to Nicosian and attempted to join the six-man boarding party by climbing up her hanging lifeboat falls^{[note 1]} and pilot ladder. In response, Herbert ordered his men to open fire with small arms on the men in the water.^{[21][22][23][24]}

After a few German survivors managed to climb aboard the Nicosian, Herbert sent Baralong's 12 Royal Marines, under the command of a Corporal Collins, to board the sinking vessel. As they departed, Herbert ordered Collins, "Take no prisoners."^[25] The Germans were discovered in the engine room and shot on sight. According to Sub-Lieutenant Gordon Steele: "Wegener ran to a cabin on the upper deck - I later found out it was Manning's bathroom. The marines broke down the door with the butts of their rifles, but Wegener squeezes through a scuttle and dropped into the sea. He still had his life-jacket on and put up his arms in surrender. Corporal Collins, however, took aim and shot him through the head."^[26] Collins later recalled that, after Wegener's death, Herbert threw a revolver in the German captain's face and screamed, "What about the Lusitania, you bastard!"^[26]

In Herbert's report to the Admiralty, he alleged the German survivors were trying to board and scuttle the Nicosian, so he ordered the Royal Marines on his ship to kill the survivors. The Admiralty, upon receiving the report, vainly ordered that the incident be kept secret.

After the Nicosian's crew arrived at Liverpool, however, the American members of the crew gave sworn testimony to the United States Consul about the massacre of U-27's crew. After their return to the United States, they repeated their testimony before a notary public at the Imperial German Consulate in New Orleans. As a result, the US State Department forwarded a formal protest by the German Empire to the British Foreign Office.^[27]

The memorandum demanded that "Captain McBride" and the crew of HMS Baralong be court-martialed and threatened to "take the serious decision of retribution" if the massacre of U-27's crew went unprosecuted.^[28]

The Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, replied through U.S. State Department in a textbook example of diplomatic effrontery. He wrote, "His Majesty's Government do not think it necessary to make any reply to to the suggestion that the British navy has been guilty of inhumanity, according to the latest figures available, the number of German sailors rescued from drowning, often in circumstances of great difficulty and peril, amounts to 1,150. The German navy can show no such record - perhaps through want of opportunity."^[29]

Sir Edward further argued that the alleged massacre of U-27's crew could be grouped with the Imperial German Navy's sinking of SS Arabic, their attack on a stranded British submarine in neutral Dutch territorial waters, and their attack on the steamship Ruel. In conclusion, Grey suggested that all four incidents be placed before a tribunal chaired by the United States Navy.^[30]

The U.S. State Department also vainly protested that the American flag had been used as a false flag. Walter Hines Page, the U.S. Ambassador in London, was telegraphed by Secretary of State Robert Lansing and ordered to not ask Sir Edward Grey any questions about whether the American flag had been used in the case. "The fact," he was told, "is established.^[31]

Lieutenant Commander Herbert and the crew of HMS Baralong  were awarded a bounty of £185 for sinking U-27.^[32]

Similar incidents

On 24 September 1915 HMS Baralong also sank U-41, which was in the process of sinking the cargo ship Urbino. According to the two German survivors, Baralong continued to fly the American flag after opening fire on U-41 and then rammed the lifeboat carrying the German survivors, causing it to sink.^[33]

The only witnesses to the second attack were the German and British sailors present. Oberleutnant zur See Iwan Crompton, after returning to Germany from a prisoner-of-war camp, reported that Baralong had run down the lifeboat he was in; he leapt clear and was shortly after taken prisoner. The British crew denied that they had rammed the lifeboat.^[34]

Crompton later published an account of U-41's exploits in 1917, U-41: der zweite Baralong-Fall, which called the sinking of U-41 a "second Baralong case".^[35]

Baralong's new commanding officer, Lieutenant-Commander A. Wilmot-Smith, and his crew were awarded a £170 bounty for sinking U-41.^[36]

On 19 June 1918, the U-boat SM UB-110, under the command of Kapitänleutnant Werner Fürbringer, was depth charged, rammed, and sunk off the Yorkshire coast by the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Garry, which was under the command of Lieutenant Commander Charles Lightoller. Fürbringer later alleged in his memoirs that the Garry then hove to and opened fire on the German survivors with revolvers and machine guns. During the ensuing massacre, Fürbringer watched the skull of an 18-year old member of his crew being split open by a lump of coal hurled by a Royal Navy sailor. When Fürbringer attempted to help a wounded officer to swim, he was told, "Let me die in peace. The swine are going to murder us anyhow." The shooting only ceased when the convoy the destroyer had been escorting and which contained many neutral-flagged ships, arrived on scene. He later recalled, "As if by magic the British now let down some life boats into the water."^[37]

Lieutenant Commander Lightoller, who had been the Second Officer aboard RMS Titanic, was awarded a bar to the Distinguished Service Cross for sinking UB-110.

German reaction

While interviewing German U-Boat veterans for his 1928 book Raiders of the Deep, American journalist Lowell Thomas asked about the torpedoing of merchant ships without warning. In response, he was told that such decisions were usually made by U-boat Captains on a case by case basis. Early in the war, U-boats preferred to surface and search the papers of merchant ships whenever possible, especially because torpedos were expensive and only a limited number of them could be carried. Even after unrestricted submarine warfare was announced in February 1915, many U-boat crews continued to adhere to the Prize Rules whenever possible.^[38] U-boat veterans, however, spoke to Lowell Thomas with outrage about incidents like the Baralong case and incidents of POWs taken from U-boats being subjected to excessive force by during interrogation.^[39] A slogan accordingly spread throughout the U-boat service, "Its their life or ours. No warning."

Martial law in Dublin

Following the suppression of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin, martial law remained in effect and Captain J. C. Bowen-Colthurst of the Royal Irish Rifles went on a search for "Fenians". Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, Thomas Dickson, and Patrick McIntyre had already been arrested on the evening of 26 April 1916, but Captain Bowen-Colthurst demanded they accompany him as hostages.^[40] Upon seeing a 17-year old boy, Captain Bowen-Colthurst ordered his men to, "Bash him", watched as they did so, and then fatally shot the boy as he lay in the street. Sheehy-Skeffington, a pacifist who had recently attempted to save a British officer who had been wounded and pinned down by IRB fire, immediately expressed his outrage and was told by the Captain, "You'll be next."

Captain Bowen-Colthurst went on to also kill a union leader, Councillor Richard O'Carroll, and another boy.

The following morning, all three hostages were shot in the backs by an ad hoc firing squad in the courtyard of Portobello Barracks. Dickson and McIntyre had both been Pro-British journalists; Sheehy-Skeffington had been an advocate of Home Rule for Ireland within the United Kingdom. All three bodies were put in sacks and buried in the barracks yard.^[41]

Major Sir Francis Fletcher-Vane of the Royal Munster Fusiliers, the commander of Portobello Barracks, regarded the killings as murder, and decided to arrest and court-martial Captain Bowen-Colthurst. To his shock and horror, both Dublin Castle and their military superiors refused permission. Even when Major Fletcher-Vane traveled to London and obtained a direct order for the Captain's arrest from Lord Kitchener, General Sir John Maxwell, the military governor of Ireland with "plenary powers" under "Martial law", simply ignored it.^[42] In a British Army briefing which still survives, it was decided that Major Fletcher-Vane "is to be reduced to unemployment owing to his actions in the Sheehy-Skeffington case." Both the Prime Minister and King George V rejected calls for his reinstatement.^[40]

The Royal Military Police finally arrested Captain Bowen-Colthurst on 6 June 1916, after Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington appealed directly to Prime Minister H. H. Asquith. In a court martial widely seen as a miscarriage of justice, Captain Bowen-Colthurst successfully pleaded insanity based on his combat experiences in the trenches and was committed to Broadmoor Hospital. Captain Bowen-Colthurst was released as cured in 1921 and retired to Canada on a full pension.^[42]

German Investigation of British War Crimes

According to historian Alfred de Zayas, the Prussian Ministry of War established the "Military Bureau for the Investigation of Violations of the Laws of War", (German: Militäruntersuchungstelle für Verletzungen des Kriegsrechts) on 19 October 1914. The Bureau's stated purpose was "to determine violations of the laws and customs of war which enemy military and civilian persons have committed against the Prussian troops and to investigate whatever accusations of this nature are made against by the enemy against members of the Prussian Army."^[43]

The Military Bureau "had wide competence to establish facts in a judicial manner and to secure the evidence necessary for legal analysis of each case. Witnesses were interrogated and their sworn depositions taken by military judges; lists of suspected war criminals were compiled, which would probably have led to criminal proceedings if Germany had won the war. The material remained largely secret, though some excerpts from witness depositions were used in German white books."^[43]

By the summer of 1918, the Military Bureau had documented 355 separate incidents of violations of the laws and customs of war by British servicemen along the Western Front.^[44]

The Military Bureau also compiled a thirteen page "Black List of Englishmen who are guilty of violations of the laws of war vis a vis members of the German Armed Forces" (German: Schwarze Liste derjenigen Engländer, die sie während des Krieges gegenüber deutschen Heeresangehörigen völkerechtwidringen Verhaltens schuldig gemacht haben). The list, which survived the Allied firebombing of Berlin and Potsdam during the Second World War, contains a total of 39 names, including "Captain McBride" of HMS Baralong.^[45]

Following the Armistice, investigation continued, particularly into crimes against German POWs, and culminated in a five volume report entitled International Law during the World War (German: Völkerrecht im Weltkrieg). The report was never translated, however, and had minimal effect outside of Germany.^[46]

Also following the Armistice, the victorious Allies pooled their reports, compiled a joint list of alleged German war crimes, and demanded the extradition of 900 alleged war criminals for trial in France and the United Kingdom. As this proved unacceptable to the German electorate, the Government of the Weimar Republic agreed to try them domestically in the Leipzig War Crimes Trials.^[47]

According to de Zayas, however, "Generally speaking, the German population took exception to these trials, especially because the Allies were not similarly bringing their own soldiers to justice."^[43]

Irish War of Independence

In the Irish general election of December 1918, the Irish republican Sinn Féin Party, won a landslide victory. On 21 January 1919, the Sinn Fein MPs, who had refused to take their seats in the House of Commons, met at the official residence of the Lord Mayor of Dublin, convened a nationalist parliament called Dáil Éireann, declared independence from the United Kingdom, and voted to depose George V as King of Ireland

On the same day, the 3rd Tipperary Brigade of the paramilitary Irish Volunteers ambushed a Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) convoy at Soloheadbeg and fatally shot Constables James McDonnell and Patrick O'Connell. The two Constables' deaths were locally regarded as murder and were denounced from local Roman Catholic pulpits. The Dail which had not authorized the ambush, was equally outraged by it. The Executive of the Irish Volunteers was also sickened and "the Soloheadbeg Gang" were ostracized throughout the conflict that followed.^[48] Even so, the Soloheadbeg ambush is still regarded as the first engagement of the Irish War of Independence.

However, on 31 January, An t-Óglach (the official publication of the Irish Volunteers) instructed all units that the convening of the Dáil "justifies Irish Volunteers in treating the armed forces of the enemy – whether soldiers or policemen – exactly as a National Army would treat the members of an invading army".^[49]

This resulting conflict between the British government and the Dáil ran from January 1919 until July 1921, when a ceasefire was signed. Although this conflict is commonly called the Irish War of Independence, the British Government of the time called it "The Troubles."^[50]

In hopes of breaking support for the Dáil, Sir Frederick Shaw, British Secretary of State for War Winston Churchill, and Major General Henry Hugh Tudor suggested recruiting World War I veterans into paramilitary units to bolster the distegrating RIC. David Lloyd George, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, agreed and advertisements were placed in newspapers. Veterans who had been commissioned officers were appointed as "Temporary Cadets" of the Auxiliary Division (ADRIC), which received higher pay and better equipment. "Other ranks" became Special Constables of the Royal Irish Constabulary Reserve Force (RICRF) and were dubbed the "Black and Tans" because of their mixture of British Army and RIC uniforms.^[51]

The British Cabinet initially considered their actions to be an attempt to suppress the guerrilla warfare of the Dáil's armed wing, the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Eventually, however, a coherent strategy was devised that involved the use of intelligence, propaganda, and armed retaliation. War was never officially declared but a de facto state of war existed after late July 1920. Historian Martin Seedorf says that

...between the summers of 1920 and 1921 [there] were systematic reprisals against Irish civilians and their property by British forces retaliating for the IRA's killing of their own men.^[50]

Rineen Ambush and its aftermath

On 22 September 1920, the IRA ambushed an RIC patrol lorry at Drummin Hill in the townland of Drummin, near the hamlet of Rineen (or Rinneen), County Clare. The attack resulted in the deaths of six policemen. Shortly after, the IRA volunteers were attacked by ten lorry-loads of British Army personnel, who had been sent as reinforcements. However, they held off this attack long enough to flee the scene and sustained only two wounded.^[52]

In reprisal for the ambush, the RIC and British military raided three nearby villages, fatally shot five civilians, and burned down 16 residences and shops.^[53][54]

Ballyduff and Killorglin

On 21 October 1920, 18-year old medical student and IRA Volunteer Kevin Barry was sentenced to death by a military tribunal in Dublin. On the eve of Barry's execution on 1 November, IRA Headquarters sent out orders for a general attack on British security forces throughout Ireland. An order calling off the attack issued at the last minute failed to reach Patrick Cahill, the IRA's Officer Commanding in County Kerry.^[55]

On the night of 31 October 1920, the IRA's 1st Kerry Brigade assassinated RIC Constables George Morgan and Thomas Reidy in Ballyduff, County Kerry. Within hours, British security forces entered the village, burned down the creamery and several local businesses. Teenaged Ballyduff resident John Houlihan was dragged from his parents' house, dragged across the road, bayoneted, shot, and finished off by being bludgeoned with a rifle butt.^[56]

On the same night, RICRF Special Constables Herbert Evans and Albert Caseley were fatally shot near Killorglin following a date with two local girls. In retaliation, the Black and Tans burned down Killorglin's Sinn Fein Hall, a nearby garage, the Temperance Association Hall, and the residence of a prominent local Sinn Fein member. Shooting continued until 5:30 AM and local resident Denis O'Sullivan was taken from his house and shot four times in the village square. He never fully recovered and died the following year.^[57]

Tralee

On 31 October 1920, RIC Constables Patrick Waters and Ernest Bright were abducted by the IRA in Tralee, County Kerry and later killed. The same night, RIC Constable Daniel McCarthy and naval radio operator Bert Woodward were shot and wounded, also in Tralee. On 1 November, a large force of Black and Tans entered the village. Demanding the safe return of Constables Waters and Bright, they forcibly closed all businesses, and did not let anyone sell or purchase food for nine days. They shot up and burned down several houses and all businesses believed to be connected to IRA activists. Local residents who went outside their homes were verbally abused and fired upon. In the course of the week, Crown security forces shot dead local residents John Conway, Thomas Wall, and Simon O'Connor. By the time businesses were allowed to reopen on November 9, starvation conditions were prevailing in Tralee. The incident caused a major international outcry, angry denunciations in the House of Commons, and front page stories in the British, French, Canadian, and American press.^[58]

In an editorial published in the London Daily News, Hugh Martin argued that Tralee was a microcosm of what was happening in Ireland as a whole; the IRA struck, Crown security forces violently retaliated against the entire local population, and support for the IRA was even more firmly cemented throughout the surrounding district.^[59]

Bloody Sunday and its aftermath

On the early morning of Sunday, 21 November 1920, Michael Collins, the IRA's Director of Organization, Arms Procurement, and Intelligence, dispatched his personal assassination squad on a meticulously planned operation at hotels and boarding houses throughout Dublin.^[60] In a move that crippled British Intelligence in Ireland,^[61] Collins' men fatally shot 13 British spymasters including the majority of the "Cairo Gang".^[62]

As the IRA had successfully assassinated less than a third of the British agents intended, Collins and his staff regarded "Bloody Sunday" as a disappointment.^[63] Even so, the killings caused panic among the surviving agents. Some sought sanctuary in Dublin Castle and many other went into hiding.^[64]

Retaliation

That afternoon, a combined force of the RIC, the Dublin Metropolitan Police, the Auxiliary Division, the RICRF, and the British Army stormed Croke Park during a Gaelic football match. Accompanied by an armoured car which remained outside the pitch, security forces were under orders to stop the game and search all males to see if anyone was carrying firearms. Instead, the Auxiliaries and Black and Tans opened fire within the stadium. As the panicking crowd stampeded toward the exits, more than 228 rounds were fired from small arms and 50 from the armoured car. The shooting left 15 people dead (12 men, 1 woman, and 2 children) and 60 wounded, of whom 11 had to be detained in hospital.^[65][66]

At a subsequent court of inquiry, witnesses from the security forces alleged that members of the crowd had been armed and had fired first. Even so, the court ruled that the shooting at the stadium was unauthorised, indiscriminate, and unjustifiable. To the outrage of some senior British officers, no further action was taken and the court of inquiry's findings remained unpublished for more than eighty years.^[67]

Brigadier General Frank Percy Crozier, who was shortly to resign in protest against Government interference in attempts to hold the shooters involved accountable, publicly quoted a British Army officer who had been present, "It was the most disgraceful show I have ever seen. The Black and Tans fired into the crowd without any provocation whatsoever."^[68]

That evening, three captured IRA members held at Dublin Castle, Brigadiers Dick McKee and Peadar Clancy and Volunteer Conor Clune (a nephew of Archbishop Patrick Clune of Perth, Australia), were tortured and summarily shot by the Auxiliary Division's F Company^[69][70] officially while attempting to escape.^[71]

When the 13 assassinated officers were eulogized in the House of Commons, Irish Parliamentary Party MP Joseph Devlin triggered outrage by raising questions about the deaths at Croke Park. Despite the Secretary of State for Ireland's grudging insistence that he was "prepared to answer", Devlin was shouted down and physically assaulted by MPs from the Liberal, Conservative, and Labour parties. After the speaker declared the sitting suspended, a number of MPs, in a sign of eroding support for the war in Ireland, went up to Devlin and shook hands with him. Several Conservative MPs, including Viscount Curzon and Sir Harry Brittain, even "engaged in animated discussion" with Devlin. The session resumed after a twenty minute recess.^[72]

The Kilmichael Ambush and its aftermath

On 28 November 1920, Tom Barry, the Officer Commanding of the IRA's 3rd Cork Brigade, and 36 Volunteers ambushed a large lorry convoy at Kilmichael, County Cork. In an engagement lasting 15 minutes, 17 ADRIC Temporary Cadets were killed by gunfire, grenades, and brutal hand-to-hand combat. The British Government later alleged that the dead had been mutilated with axes, which Barry called a blatant fabrication in his memoirs.^[73] Only two members of the Auxiliary Division survived the ambush. Temporary Cadet H.F. Forde was left for dead at the ambush site, was picked up by British forces the following day, and taken to hospital in Cork City. He was awarded £10,000 in compensation. Temporary Cadet Cecil Guthrie, formerly of the Royal Air Force, was severely wounded and fled from the ambush site. After asking for help at a nearby house, Guthrie found that two IRA Volunteers were staying there. Recognized as the killer of local resident Séamus Ó Liatháin, in Ballymakeerahe on 17 October 1920, Temporary Cadet Guthrie was disarmed and shot dead with his own pistol.^[74]

In retaliation for the Kilmichael Ambush, British security forces burned numerous houses, shops, and barns in the nearby villages of Kilmichael, Johnstown and Inchageela.^[75] On 3 December, three IRA Volunteers were abducted by soldiers of the Essex Regiment in Bandon, beaten, killed, and dumped on the roadside.^[75] Meanwhile, in London, barriers were placed on either end of Downing Street to protect the Prime Minister from potential IRA attacks.^[76]

The Burning of Cork

On 11 December 1920, IRA commander Seán O'Donoghue received intelligence that two lorries of Temporary Cadets of the Auxiliary Division would be leaving Victoria Barracks in north Cork and that British Army Intelligence Corps Captain James Kelly would be travelling with them.^[77] That evening, O'Donoghue and six IRA Volunteers, intending to kill Captain Kelly and as many of those with him as possible, attacked the convoy with gunfire and grenades at Dillon's Cross. During the brief engagement that followed, 12 Temporary Cadets were wounded and one, Spencer Chapman, was killed.^[77]

Enraged by an attack so near their headquarters and still wanting revenge for the 18 Temporary Cadets killed at Kilmichael, the Auxiliaries in Victoria Barracks retaliated throughout the following night.^[78] Temporary Cadet Charles Schulze, a veteran of the Great War and former Captain in the Dorsetshire Regiment, organized some of the ADRIC's K Company to loot and burn the entire city centre.^[79]

Many civilians later reported being physically assaulted, fired upon, robbed at gunpoint, and verbally abused by British security forces. Members of the Cork Fire Brigade later testified that the arsonists had hindered their attempts to fight the blazes by threats, gunfire, and cutting fire hoses.

Unarmed brothers Cornelius and Jeremiah Delaney, who were members of F Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Cork Brigade IRA, were shot dead in their bedroom in the north of the city by unidentified assailants,^[80] and a woman died of a heart-attack when Auxiliaries burst into her house.

Over 40 business premises, 300 residential properties, Cork's City Hall, and its Carnegie Library were destroyed. The Auxiliary Division had caused over £3 million worth of damage,^[81] left 2,000 civilians unemployed, and left many others homeless.

In a letter to his girlfriend in England, Schulze called the fires, "sweet revenge". In a letter to his mother he wrote: "Many who had witnessed scenes in France and Flanders say that nothing they had experienced was comparable with the punishment meted out in Cork".^[79]

On 15 December 1920, two lorry-loads of Auxiliaries were travelling from Dunmanway to Cork for the funeral of Spencer Chapman when they met an elderly priest and a farmer's son helping the resident magistrate fix his car. An Auxiliary got out of his lorry and shot both men dead. A military court of inquiry heard that the Temporary Cadet in question had been a close friend of Chapman and had been "drinking steadily" since his death. He was found guilty of murder, but insane.^[82]

For their part in the arson and looting of the city center of Cork, the Auxiliary Division's K Company was disbanded on 31 March 1921.^[83]

Reaction in Britain

Arsons, lootings, prisoner abuse, summary executions, and routine reprisals against noncombatants cemented the Irish people's support for the Dáil and caused the British electorate and many of their representatives to demand peace negotiations. Conservative MP Edward Wood, Baron Irwin denounced the use of force and urged the British Government to make an offer to the Dáil "conceived on the most generous lines".^[84] Liberal MP Sir John Simon also expressed horror at the tactics being used. Lionel Curtis, writing in the journal The Round Table, wrote: "If the British Commonwealth can only be preserved by such means, it would become a negation of the principle for which it has stood".^[85] Senior Church of England bishops, MPs from the Conservative, Liberal, and Labour parties, British Union of Fascists leader Oswald Mosley, South African Prime Minister Jan Smuts, the Trades Union Congress, Roman Catholic apologists G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc, and many British newspapers grew increasingly critical of the continuing war in Ireland.

In an editorial published during the Tralee Pogrom, The Daily News of London commented, "The vital fact in the tragedy is that while the chief secretary is repeating his stereotyped assurances that things are getting better, it is patent to readers of newspapers the world over that things are daily getting worse. At the moment the supreme need is to withdraw the troops. If the police cannot remain unprotected, let them go too. Ireland could not be worse off without them than with them. There is every reason to believe her state would be incomparably better."^[86]

By the summer of 1921, opposition to continuing hostilities had extended to the highest levels of the British Government. King George V had come "to see himself as the father of all his people," and "agonized over the bloodshed and the cruelty".^[87]

In July 1921, the New York Times reported that the King had been working behind the scenes to force the Prime Minister to end the war. Most dramatically, the Times alleged that the King, before leaving for Belfast in June to address the new Parliament of Northern Ireland, had angrily asked the Prime Minister, "Are you going to shoot all the people in Ireland?" When Lloyd George replied, "No, Your Majesty," the King responded, "Well, then, you must come to some agreement with them. This thing cannot go on. I cannot have my people killed in this manner."^[88] The Prime Minister and the Palace immediately denied being at variance over Ireland and insisted that the conversation had never taken place. However, the diaries of Lloyd George's Secretary, Frances Stevenson record that the Prime Minister summoned the King's Private Secretary, Lord Stamfordham, who admitted to being the source of the leak. Stevenson described Lloyd George as "simply furious."^[89]

On 11 July 1921, a ceasefire finally took effect between the British Government and the Dáil. Subsequent negotiations in London led to the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which guaranteed the independence of the Irish Free State. In response, Indian National Congress leader Mahatma Gandhi said: "It is not fear of losing more lives that has compelled a reluctant offer from England but it is the shame of any further imposition of agony upon a people that loves liberty above everything else".^[90]

World War II

Crimes against enemy combatants, civilians, and civilian property

Looting

In violation of the Hague Conventions, British (and other Allied) troops conducted small scale looting in Normandy following their liberation.^[91] On 21 April 1945, British soldiers randomly selected and burned two cottages in Seedorf, Germany, in reprisal against local civilians who had hidden German soldiers in their cellars.^[92] Historian Sean Longden claims that violence against German prisoners and civilians who refused to cooperate with the British army "could be ignored or made light of".^[93]

On 23 May 1945, a number of British soldiers searching for Heinrich Himmler held Prince Ferdinand of Holstein, along with his family and staff, at gunpoint in the courtyard of Glücksburg Castle, in Schleswig-Holstein. The troops then looted the castle, stealing jewellery; some of which, was later recovered. The prince alleged that these soldiers also broke open 38 coffins in the castle's mausoleum.^[94]

Excessive force against POWs

An MI19 prisoner of war facility, known as the "London Cage", was utilised during and immediately after the war. This facility has been the subject of allegations of torture.^[95] The Bad Nenndorf interrogation centre, in occupied Germany, managed by the Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre, was the subject of an official inquiry in 1947. It found that there was "mental and physical torture during the interrogations" and that "personal property of the prisoners were stolen".^[96]

Rapes

Rape took place during the British advance towards Germany.^[97] During late 1944, with the army based across Belgium and the Netherlands, soldiers were billeted with local families or befriended them. In December 1944, it came to the attention of the authorities that there was a "rise of indecency with children" where abusers had exploited the "atmosphere of trust" that had been created with local families. While the army "attempted to investigate allegations, and some men were convicted, it was an issue that received little publicity."^[93] Rape also occurred once British forces had entered Germany.^[97] Many rapes were the result of alcohol or post-traumatic stress, but there were also instances of premeditated attacks.^[93] For example, on a single day in April 1945, three women in Neustadt am Rübenberge were raped.^[97] In the village of Oyle, near Nienburg, two soldiers attempted to coerce two girls into a nearby wood. When they refused, one was grabbed and dragged into the woods. When she began to scream, in according to Longden, "one of the soldiers pulled a gun to silence her. Whether intentionally or in error the gun went off hitting her in the throat and killing her."^[93]

Sean Longden highlights that "Some officers failed to treat reports of rape with gravity." He provides the example of a medic, who had a rape reported to him. In cooperation with the Royal Military Police, they were able to track down and apprehend the perpetrators who were then identified by the victim. When the two culprits "were taken before their CO. His response was alarming. He insisted since the men were going on leave no action could be taken and that his word was final."^[93]

Bombing of Dresden

The British, with other allied nations (mainly the U.S.) carried out air raids against enemy cities during World War II, including the bombing of the German city of Dresden, which killed around 25,000 people. While "no agreement, treaty, convention or any other instrument governing the protection of the civilian population or civilian property" from aerial attack was adopted before the war,^[98] the Hague Conventions did prohibit the bombardment of undefended towns. The city, largely untouched by the war had functioning rail communications to the Eastern front and was an industrial centre. Allied forces inquiry concluded that an air attack on Dresden was militarily justified on the grounds the city was defended.^[99]

This city was filled with refugees fleeing the oncoming Red Army.^[100][101] Allied leaflet drops and radio broadcasts had warned all civilians to evacuate major towns and cities.^[102] When asked whether the bombing of Dresden was a war crime, British historian Frederick Taylor replied: "I really don't know. From a practical point of view, rules of war are something of a grey area. It was pretty borderline stuff in terms of the extent of the raid and the amount of force used."^[103] Historian Donald Bloxham claims that "the bombing of Dresden on 13–14 February 1945 was a war crime". He further argues that there was a strong prima facie for trying Winston Churchill among others and that there is theoretical case that he could have been found guilty. "This should be a sobering thought. If, however it is also a startling one, this is probably less the result of widespread understanding of the nuance of international law and more because in the popular mind 'war criminal', like 'paedophile' or 'terrorist', has developed into a moral rather than a legal categorisation."^[104]

War crimes at sea

Unrestricted submarine warfare

On 4 May 1940, in response to Germany's intensive unrestricted submarine warfare, during the Battle of the Atlantic and its invasion of Denmark and Norway, the Royal Navy conducted its own unrestricted submarine campaign. The Admiralty announced that all vessels in the Skagerrak, were to be sunk on sight without warning. This was contrary to the terms of the Second London Naval Treaty.^[105][106]

Shootings of shipwreck survivors

According to Alfred de Zayas, there are numerous documented cases of the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force deliberately firing upon shipwreck survivors.^[107]

In July 1941, the submarine HMS Torbay, under Lieutenant Commander Anthony Miers, was based in the Mediterranean where it sank several German ships. On two occasions, once off the coast of Alexandria, Egypt, and the other off the coast of Crete, the crew fired upon shipwrecked German sailors and troops. Miers made no attempt to hide his actions, and reported them in his official logs. He received a strongly worded reprimand from his superiors following the first incident. Mier's actions violated the Hague Convention of 1907, which banned the killing of shipwreck survivors under any circumstances.^[108][109]

Attacks against non-combatant ships

On 10 September 1942, the Italian hospital ship Arno was torpedoed and sunk by RAF torpedo bombers north-east of Ras el Tin, near Tobruk. The British claimed that a decoded German radio message intimated that the vessel was carrying supplies to the Axis troops.^[110] Arno was the third Italian hospital ship sunk by British aircraft since the loss of the Po in the Adriatic Sea to aerial torpedoes on 14 March 1941 and the bombing of the California off Syracuse on 11 August 1942. Five sea-rescue boats, used to search for missing pilots from both sides of the conflict were also strafed and sunk by RAF planes during the same period.^[111]

On 18 November 1944, the German hospital ship Tübingen was sunk by two Beaufighter bombers off Pola, in the Adriatic Sea. The vessel, which had paid a brief visit to the allied-controlled port of Bari to pick up German wounded under the auspicies of the Red Cross, was attacked with rockets nine times, despite that the calm sea and the good weather allowed a clear identification of the ship's Red Cross markings. Six crewmembers were killed.^[112] American author Alfred M. de Zayas, who evaluated the 266 extant volumes of the Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau, identifies the sinking of Tübingen and other German hospital ships as war crimes.^[113]

Malaya

On 12 December 1948, during the Malayan Emergency, the Batang Kali massacre took place which involved the killing of 24 villagers. The official British position was that these villagers were insurgents attempting to escape, and that detailed investigation into the situation was not possible due to a lack of evidence. Six of the eight British soldiers involved were interviewed under caution by detectives. They corroborated accounts that the villagers were unarmed, were not insurgents nor trying to escape, and had been unlawfully killed on the order of the two sergeants in command. The sergeants denied the allegations. The Government's position was that if anyone is to be held responsible, it should be the Sultan of Selangor.^{[114][115][116][117]}

Decapitation and mutilation of insurgents by British forces were also common as a way to identify dead guerrillas when it was not possible to bring their corpses in from the jungle. A photograph of a Royal Marine commando holding two insurgents’ heads caused a public outcry in April 1952. The Colonial Office privately noted that "there is no doubt that under international law a similar case in wartime would be a war crime".^{[118][119][120]}

As part of the Briggs' Plan devised by British General Sir Harold Briggs, 500,000 people (roughly ten percent of Malaya's population) were eventually removed from the land, had tens of thousands of their homes destroyed, and were interned in 450 guarded fortified camps called "New Villages". The intent of this measure was to inflict collective punishments on villages where people were deemed to be aiding the insurgents and to isolate the population from contact with insurgents. The British also tried to win the hearts of the internees by providing them with education and health services as well as piped water and electricity within the villages. While considered necessary, some of the cases involving the widespread destruction went beyond justification of military necessity. This practice was prohibited by the Geneva Conventions and customary international law which stated that the destruction of property must not happen unless rendered absolutely necessary by military operations.^{[118][119][121]}

Kenya

Treatment of detainees

During an eight-year conflict in Kenya from 1952 to 1960 in which Britain sought to restore order many Kikuyu were relocated. According to David Anderson, the British hanged over 1,090 suspected rebels: far more than the French executed in Algeria during the Algerian War. It was found out that over half of them executed were not rebels at all. Thousands more were killed by British soldiers, who claimed they had "failed to halt" when challenged.^{[122][123][124]} Among the detainees who suffered severe mistreatment was Hussein Onyango Obama, the grandfather of U.S. President Barack Obama. According to his widow, British soldiers forced pins into his fingernails and buttocks and squeezed his testicles between metal rods and two others were castrated.^[125]

In June 1957, Eric Griffith-Jones, the attorney general of the British administration in Kenya, wrote to the governor, Sir Evelyn Baring, detailing the way the regime of abuse at the colony's detention camps was being subtly altered. He said that the mistreatment of the detainees is "distressingly reminiscent of conditions in Nazi Germany or Communist Russia". Despite this, he said that in order for abuse to remain legal, Mau Mau suspects must be beaten mainly on their upper body, "vulnerable parts of the body should not be struck, particularly the spleen, liver or kidneys", and it was important that "those who administer violence ... should remain collected, balanced and dispassionate". He also reminded the governor that "If we are going to sin," he wrote, "we must sin quietly."^[125][126]

Chuka Massacre

The Chuka Massacre, which happened in Chuka, Kenya, was perpetrated by members of the King's African Rifles B Company in June 1953 with 20 unarmed people killed during the Mau Mau uprising. Members of the 5th KAR B Company entered the Chuka area on 13 June 1953, to flush out rebels suspected of hiding in the nearby forests. Over the next few days, the regiment had captured and executed 20 people suspected of being Mau Mau fighters for unknown reasons. It is found out that most of the people executed were actually belonged to the Kikuyu Home Guard - a loyalist militia recruited by the British to fight an increasingly powerful and audacious guerrilla enemy. In an atmosphere of atrocity and reprisal, the matter was swept under the carpet and nobody ever stood trial for the massacre.^[127]

Hola Massacre

The Hola massacre was an incident at a detention camp in Hola, Kenya. By January 1959 the camp had a population of 506 detainees of whom 127 were held in a secluded "closed camp". This more remote camp near Garissa, eastern Kenya, was reserved for the most uncooperative of the detainees. They often refused, even when threats of force were made, to join in the colonial "rehabilitation process" or perform manual labour or obey colonial orders. The camp commandant outlined a plan that would force 88 of the detainees to bend to work. On 3 March 1959, the camp commandant put this plan into action – as a result, 11 detainees were clubbed to death by guards.^[128] All of the surviving detainees sustained serious permanent injuries.^[129] The British government accepts that the colonial administration tortured detainees, but denies liability.^[130]

Iraq War

There were a number of cases where British soldiers opened fire and killed Iraqi civilians in circumstances where there was apparently no imminent threat of death or serious injury to themselves or others. Many of them resorted to lethal force even though the use of such force did not appear to be justified by military necessity in order to protect life.^{[131][132][133]} Many Iraqi civilians also died or were seriously injured from brutal mistreatment while under British custody.^[134][135] In one case, following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a video showed British soldiers brutally beating an Iraqi civilian after the killing of six Royal Military Policemen, known as Red Caps, by an Iraqi mob.^[136]

In May 2003, Saeed Shabram and his cousin, Menem Akaili, were thrown into the river near Basra after being detained by British troops. Akaili survived but Shabram did not as he drowned in the river. Akaili said that he and Shabram were approached by a British patrol and led at gunpoint down to a jetty before being forced into the river. The punishment was known as "wetting" and said to have been inflicted on local youths suspected of looting. "Wetting was supposed to humiliate those suspected of being petty criminals," said Sapna Malik, the family's lawyer at Leigh Day and Co. "Although the MoD denies that there was a policy of wetting to deal with suspected looters around the time of this incident, evidence we have seen suggests otherwise. The tactics employed by the MoD appeared to include throwing or placing suspected looters into either of Basra's two main waterways." Iraqi bystanders dragged Akaili out of the water but his cousin disappeared. Shabram's body was later recovered by a diver hired by his father, Radhi Shabram. Shabram's mother waited on the river bank for four hours, screaming and crying, while the diver searched the river. "When Saeed's corpse was finally pulled from the river, Radhi describes how it was bloated and covered with marks and bruises," said Leigh Day. Though the MOD paid compensation to Saeed Shabram's family, none of the British soldiers were charged for his death.^[137]

Ahmed Jabbar Kareem Ali, aged 15, was on his way to work with his brother on 8 May 2003, when British soldiers assaulted him. The four British soldiers beat him then forced him into a canal at gunpoint to "teach him a lesson" for suspected looting (which wasn't proven to be true). Weakened from the beating Ali received from the soldiers, he floundered. He was dead when he was pulled from the river. Four British soldiers who were involved in the death of an Iraqi teenager were acquitted of manslaughter.^[138][139]

Corporal Donald Payne (born 9 September 1970)^[140] is a former soldier of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment of the British Army who became the first member of the British armed forces to be convicted of a war crime under the provisions of the International Criminal Court Act 2001 for the death of Baha Mousa when he pleaded guilty on 19 September 2006 to a charge of inhumane treatment.^[141][142] He was jailed for one year and dismissed from the army as a result of his actions.^[143]

On 1 January 2004, Ghanem Kadhem Kati, an unarmed young man, was shot twice in the back by a British soldier at the door to his home. Troops had arrived at the scene after hearing shooting, which neighbours said came from a wedding party. Investigators from the Royal Military Police exhumed the teenager's body six weeks later but have yet to offer compensation or announce any conclusion to the inquiry.^[131]

In May 2004, a British soldier identified as M004 allegedly mistreated captured, unarmed prisoners of war during a 'tactical questioning' in Camp Abu Naji.^[144]

In February 2006, a video showing a group of British soldiers beating several Iraqi teenagers was posted on the internet, and shortly thereafter, on the main television networks around the world. The video took place in April 2004 and was taken from an upper storey of a building in the southern Iraqi town of Al-Amarah, shows many Iraqis outside a coalition compound. Following an altercation in which members of the crowd tossed rocks and reportedly an improvised grenade at the soldiers, the British soldiers rushed the crowd. The troopers brought some Iraqi teenagers into the compound and proceeded to beat them. The video includes a voiceover in a British accent by the cameraman, taunting the beaten teenagers. The individual recording could be heard saying:

Oh, yes! Oh Yes! Now you gonna get it. You little kids. You little motherfucking bitch!, you little motherfucking bitch.^[145]

The event was broadcast in mainstream media, resulting in the British government and military condemning the event. The incident became especially worrisome for British soldiers, who had enjoyed a more favourable position than American soldiers in the region. Concerns were voiced to the media about the safety of soldiers in the country after the incident. The tape incurred criticism, albeit relatively muted, from Iraq, and media found people prepared to speak out. The Royal Military Police conducted an investigation into the event, and the prosecuting authorities determined that there was insufficient case to justify court martial proceedings.^[135][146]

Afghan War

A Royal Marine Sergeant, identified as Sergeant Alexander Blackman from Taunton, Somerset,^[147] was convicted at court martial in Wiltshire of having murdered an unarmed, wounded Afghan fighter in Helmand Province in September 2011.^[148] On 6 December 2013, Blackman received a life sentence, with a minimum of ten years before he is eligible for parole, from the court martial in Bulford, Wiltshire. He was also dismissed with disgrace from the Royal Marines.^[149][150]

In popular culture

Films

• Breaker Morant (1980) by Bruce Beresford. A film focussing on one of the first prosecutions for war crimes in British military history - the 1902 court martial of Lieutenants Harry Harbord Morant, Peter Handcock, and George Witton. Set at the end of the Second Anglo-Boer War, Breaker Morant unfolds during the trial; the acts for which the defendants stand accused are shown in flashbacks. The three defendants are accused of the revenge killing of a Boer prisoner and the summary execution by firing squad of six other Boers after they had surrendered and been disarmed. Furthermore, Lieuts. Morant and Handcock stand accused of murdering the Rev. C.A.D. Heese of the Berlin Missionary Society. Like the defence lawyers at the Nuremberg Trials, the trio's counsel vainly argues that his clients only followed orders. In a 1999 interview, director Bruce Beresford explained, "The film never pretended for a moment that they weren't guilty." He had made the film, he added, to explore how war crimes can be "committed by people who appear to be quite normal." Beresford also lamented that his film still causes many to view Lieuts. Morant, Handcock, and Witton as "poor Australians framed by the Brits."^[151]
• Michael Collins by Neil Jordan. A biopic set between during the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War, Michael Collins depicts British security forces' retaliation for the IRA's massacre of British secret service agents on Bloody Sunday. The film is incorrect, however, in its depiction of the armoured car entering the stadium during the Croke Park massacre.
• The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) by Ken Loach. Set during the Irish War of Independence and Civil War in rural County Cork, The Wind That Shakes the Barley depicts total war tactics used against both IRA-members and noncombatants by British security forces. The films opens with the Black and Tans' summary execution of a non-IRA member for giving his name in the Irish language. The local IRA flying column retaliates by shooting the same Black and Tans dead in a pub, which in turn causes the whole village to be shot up and terrorised. When the whole column is captured, a British Army Intelligence Corps officer interrogates the Officer Commanding and rips out his fingernails when he refuses to name names. In a subsequent scene, another British Army officer tells a captured IRA member, "You are a gangster", and vainly orders an enlisted man to shoot him in the head. A subsequent scene shows the arson of local farmhouses and violence against noncombatants living near the site where an Auxiliary Division lorry patrol has been ambushed and killed to a man.

See also

Wikinews has related news: Seven British soldiers face war crimes charges

• Allied war crimes during World War II
• Arab Investigation Centres
• Battle of Danny Boy
• Chemical weapons and the United Kingdom
• Human rights in the United Kingdom

Notes

References

Sources