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Why 60 years later?

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by Dirk Marinus (U1648073) on Friday, 10th March 2006

  Media tycoon Robert Maxwell was under investigation over war crimes allegations shortly before he died in 1991, the Independent said on Friday.
  
  Citing a police report released under freedom of information legislation, the newspaper said Maxwell knew he could face a life sentence if found guilty of murdering an unarmed German civilian in 1945.
  
  Maxwell, who owned Mirror group
  of newspapers, died in November 1991. His body was found floating in the sea off the Canary Islands by the side of his yacht.
  Shortly after he died, his media empire unravelled and 400 million pounds in company pension assets were found to be missing.
  
  The newspaper said police had begun questioning members of Maxwell's platoon and were preparing a file for the Crown Prosecution Service weeks before he died. It said no witnesses had been found, however.
  
  Maxwell would have been aware of the inquiry, the paper added.
  
  The alleged shooting of a German mayor was first mentioned by Maxwell's authorised biographer Joe Haines in 1988. Maxwell is quoted in the book as describing how he tried to capture a German town.
  
  The town's mayor was told to tell his soldiers to surrender or face destruction. One hour later the mayor came back, saying the soldiers had agreed to his demands but moments later a German tank opened fire.
  
  According to the book, Maxwell said in a letter to his wife he shot the mayor and withdrew from the town. The Metropolitan police inquiry into the killing was opened after a member of the public made a complaint.
  
  Maxwell was being investigated under legislation which was brought in to prosecute Nazi war criminals living in Britain. The paper said Maxwell would, if found guilty, have been the first Briton to be prosecuted for war crimes.
  
  The police file said "it was determined that the case could be progressed no further, and it was closed in March 1992".
  
  Maxwell was awarded the Military Cross in 1945.
  
  
  My question is now;
  
  Was Maxwell the only member of the Britsh Army to be investigated on war crimes?
  
  Were there others and if so were they prosecuted?
  
  Or is Maxwell only castigated because he is no longer alive?
  
  
  
  

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by Grand Falcon Railroad (U3267675) on Friday, 10th March 2006

  Hi Dirk,
  
  I think because of the callous nature of what happened - when you think we demonise Germans who did similar things - but maybe it was a bit overblown considering whatever else happened in the ETO at the end of the war.
  
  NewcFalcon

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• Message 3

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by colonelblimp (U1705702) on Friday, 10th March 2006

  Are you thinking of WW2 specifically? In the Boer War, there was the notorious Breaker Morant case (while Morant was an Australian, he was under British army command and discipline), in which the death penalty was inflicted following the murder of a prisoner. In the Peninsular War, to quote Oman's "Wellington's Army":
  
  "Far the most frequent cause for the use of the gallows....was the killing or wounding of peasants who attempted to defend their houses or cattle from plunder. This was a crime for which Wellington seldom if ever gave pardon: he was as inflexible on the point in the hostile land of France as in the friendly Spain and Portugal.".
  
  Evidence was given at Charles I's trial that he had encouraged what would now be classified as war crimes: a witness of the 1645 sack of Leicester, when many civilians were killed by the Royalists, testified that he heard the King call out "I do not care if they cut them more, for they are mine enemies.". Whether (a) he really said this or (b) the sack was a "war crime" according to the conventions of the time is questionable, but the court recognised the concept and clearly considered the evidence relevant to Charles' trial on a capital charge.
  
  In any case, the Independent was incorrect to claim that Maxwell would have been the first Briton to be prosecuted for war crimes - the expression may be a relatively new one but many of the activities that it covers have been recognised as criminal for centuries, and punished accordingly.

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