Summary execution

[PhilB]

You can be forgiven for getting that impression, gents. Perhaps I was a little more credulous 5 years ago and entertained the possibility of the rumours being true. I`ve re-read Bill Turner`s description of the Accrington Pals attack of 1/7/16 and he mentions a report of the CSM checking dugouts for skivers and finding none. He wouldn`t be doing that if the trench police were active and it was men from this battalion who told me of the battle police and their threats. This rather casts doubts on their claims.

[Heid the Ba]

Ah, I missed the fact that thread necromancy has taken place and that the original post was 5 years old. Thanks for the explanation Phil B.

[PhilB]

90th Brigade orders (repeated in those for the 17th Manchesters) issued for the 1 July 1916 attack contained the ominous sentence "TRENCH POLICE WILL TAKE ALL POSSIBLE STEPS TO TURN BACK STRAGGLERS". I think I could take a hint!

John

I still ponder the above quote. I think that, technically, straggling takes place after an attack has started and men start to drift back. That means that trench police would need to be spread along the front (presumably in the front line trench) to turn back men or direct them to straggling posts. Any guesses as to when they would take up those positions? Before the jump off, between the waves or after the last wave?

[Silverob]

In my family there is a story that has been passed down of a relative who argued with his officer prior or during a battle being summary executed, and when reported by his friends after the battle to a superior officer was brushed under the carpet as the officer in question also died in battle that day. The story apparently  came back through friends of the relative to the family after the war. 
 

I do not find it hard to believe that it happened in some instances in such a large conflict with so many lives lost.