lled when helpless, and
the latter at, or after, the moment of capture, we are met by some
peculiar difficulties, because such acts may not in all cases be
deliberate and cold-blooded violations of the usages of war. Soldiers
who are advancing over a spot where the wounded have fallen may
conceivably think that some of these lying prostrate are shamming dead,
or, at any rate, are so slightly wounded as to be able to attack or to
fire from behind when the advancing force has passed, and thus they may
be led into killing those whom they would otherwise have spared. There
will also be instances in which men intoxicated with the frenzy of
battle slay even those whom on reflection they might have seen to be
incapable of further harming them. The same kind of fury may vent itself
on persons who are already surrendering, and even a soldier who is
usually self-controlled or humane may, in the heat of the moment, go on
killing, especially in a general melee, those who were offering to
surrender. 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. For instance, a witness says:

"About Sept. 20 our regiment took part in an engagement with
the Germans. After we had retired into our trenches, a few
minutes after we got back into them, the Germans retired into