Shot at Dawn

This groundbreaking work of military history reveals the unsettling truth about British Army executions during WWI.

The issue of military executions during the war has always been controversial, and embargoes have long kept historians from researching it. Julian Putkowski has spent decades uncovering the stories of mutinies and soldiers accused of desertion, and of the executions that followed.

In Shot at Dawn, Putkowski and co-author Julian Sykes shed light on a practice that for too long has been shrouded in secrecy. They show that trials were grossly unfair and incompetent. Many of the condemned men had been soldiers of exemplary behavior, courage, and leadership who cracked under the dreadful strain of trench warfare. This acclaimed book is the authority on this shameful legacy.