This is most likely to happen when such a soldier has been
incensed by an act of treachery or is stirred to revenge by the death of
a comrade to whom he is attached. Some cases of this kind appear in the
evidence. Such things happen in a1l wars as isolated instances, and the
circumstances may be pleaded in extenuation of acts otherwise shocking.
We have made due allowance for these considerations and have rejected
those cases in which there is a reasonable doubt as to whether those who
killed the wounded knew that the latter were completely disabled.
Nevertheless, after making all allowances, there remain certain
instances in which it is clear that quarter was refused to persons
desiring to surrender when it ought to have been given, or that persons
already so wounded as to be incapable of fighting further were wantonly
shot or bayoneted.
The cases to which references are given all present features generally
similar, and in several of them men who had been left wounded in the
trenches when a trench was carried by the enemy were found, when their
comrades subsequently retook the trench, to have been slaughtered,
although evidently helpless, or else they would have escaped with the
rest of the retreating force.
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