Paul Johnson

This compendium looks at the lives of a selection of soldiers of the First World War who never returned home. Presented in chronological order, the narrative covers both significant battles and lesser known actions on the Western Front, including Mons, Ypres, the Somme, Loos and Amiens. Each pen picture is accompanied by a portrait and additional images, bringing the reader face to face with some of those who fought and died in the trenches and fields of Western Europe and culminates in a poignant final tribute to their service. Complemented with archive black and white and colourised images, this book is an invaluable guide for those with an interest in the human story of the First World War as well as the battlefield tourist.

Nestled deep in the Surrey countryside stands the Brookwood 1939-1945 Memorial. Maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, its panels contain the names of nearly 3,500 men and women of the land forces of Britain and the Commonwealth who died in the Second World War and who have no known grave.Among the men and women who names are carved on the memorial are Special Operations Executive agents who died as prisoners or while working with Allied underground movements, servicemen killed in the various raids on enemy occupied territory in Europe, such as Dieppe and Saint-Nazaire, men and women who died at sea in hospital ships and troop transports, British Army parachutists, and even pilots and aircrew who lost their lives in flying accidents or in aerial combat.But the panels also hide a dark secret. Entwined within the names of heroes and heroines are those of nineteen men whose last resting place is known, and whose deaths were less than glorious. All were murderers who, following a civil or military trial, were executed for the heinous offence they had committed. The bodies of these individuals, with the exception of one, lay buried in un-consecrated ground.As Paul Johnson reveals, the cases of the ‘Brookwood Killers’ are violent, disturbing and often brutal in their content. They are not war crimes, but crimes committed in a time of war, for which the offender has their name recorded and maintained in perpetuity. Something that is not always applied in the case of the victim.