The Republic of Ireland is castigated for treating badly Irish soldiers deserting their army to enlist in the British to fight in WW2 (in contrast to their providing safe haven to war-criminals). To provide a comparison, what other accounts exist of people deserting to fight (either within their armed forces or joining another country’s), and then returning, and how were they treated on their return? At risk of departing the WW2 theme of site, I would be glad of accounts from any conflict as it is to find if my opinion that the Irish govt. deviated from ‘industry standard practice’ in their shabby treatment of returning AWOLs is justified or not. While appreciating that ‘rules is rules’, I would deem it reasonable to be much softer on people ‘running to the guns’ instead of away from them (the rational choice). Also, for any armed forces, people with actual combat experience should be a desideratum, and even more so for a neutral nation. I would have thought it sensible for the Irish govt. to have just ‘slapped them on the wrist’, demanded at least another ten years’ or so service in their Defence Forces in ‘compensation’, and soaked them for their knowledge of what tactics and equipment worked and what didn’t, etc. If people deserted from the neutral Irish Army to enlist in the British armed forces, and many Americans prior to their country’s entry also enlisted (famously the RAF’s ‘Eagle’ squadrons, 71, 121 and 133), it is possible that some US servicemen also deserted to join our forces. Are there any known accounts of such happening? James Jones, a veteran of the US Army and war in the Pacific, has a character, Witt, in his novel The Thin Red Line repeatedly going AWOL from his assigned ‘Cannon Company’ to return to his Rifle Company and not suffering for it. And in his previous From Here To Eternity, doomed Prewitt tries to return to his company after the Pearl Harbor attack, confident that his going AWOL will be brushed under the carpet. There was the true tale of Peter King and Leslie Cuthbertson of the Royal Army Dental Corps, who deserted and raided France; on their return, they were court martialled, received fairly minor punishment, then both were transferred, which was what they had originally wanted: King to the Commandos and Cuthbertson to the DLI. (Book Amateur Commandos by Raymond Foxhall, and film Two Men Went to War.)
My father told me of one of his Irish soldiers who failed to return from a period of leave during the war. When he finally returned some time later, he was asked for his reasons, to which he replied that he had had to serve his sentence for deserting the Irish Army before he could return to the British. Unfortunately I cannot quote the units involved nor the period of the sentence. Chris
