 |
| World
War II killing of Soviet civilians accused of being partisans on the
Eastern Front by a German firing squad, September 1941. Bundesarchiv
photo Bild 101I-212-0221-07. |
Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called
fusillading (from the French fusil, rifle), is a method of capital punishment,
particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its
use are that firearms are usually readily available and a gunshot to a vital
organ, such as the brain or heart, most often will kill relatively quickly.
Procedure
A firing squad is normally composed of at least several
shooters, all of whom are usually instructed to fire simultaneously, thus
preventing both disruption of the process by one member and identification of
who fired the lethal shot. To avoid disfigurement due to multiple shots to the
head, the shooters are typically instructed to aim at the heart, sometimes
aided by a paper or cloth target. The prisoner is typically blindfolded or
hooded as well as restrained. Executions can be carried out with the condemned
either standing or sitting. There is a tradition in some jurisdictions that
such executions are carried out at first light or at sunrise, giving rise to
the phrase "shot at dawn".
Execution by firing squad is a specific practice that is
distinct from other forms of execution by firearms, such as an execution by
shot(s) to the back of the head or neck. However, the single shot to the brain
by the squad's officer with a pistol at point blank (coup de grâce) is
sometimes incorporated in a firing squad execution, particularly if the initial
volley turns out not to be immediately fatal. Before the introduction of
firearms, bows or crossbows were often used—Saint Sebastian is usually depicted
as executed by a squad of Roman auxiliary archers in around AD 288; King Edmund
the Martyr of East Anglia, by some accounts, was tied to a tree and executed by
Viking archers on 20 November 869 or 870.
Sometimes, one or more of the members of the firing squad
may be issued a rifle containing a blank cartridge. In such cases, the shooters
are not told beforehand whether they are using live or blank ammunition. This
is believed to reinforce the sense of diffusion of responsibility among the
firing squad members. It provides each member with a measure of plausible
deniability that they, personally, did not fire a bullet at all. In practice
however, firing a live round produces significant recoil, while firing a blank
round does not. In more modern times such as during the 2010 execution of
Ronnie Lee Gardner in Utah, US, one rifleman may be given a "dummy"
cartridge containing a wax bullet, which provides a more realistic recoil.
Military Significance
The method is often the capital punishment or disciplinary
means employed by military courts for crimes such as cowardice, desertion,
espionage, murder, mutiny, or treason.
If the condemned prisoner is an ex-officer who is
acknowledged to have shown bravery throughout their career, they may be
afforded the privilege of giving the order to fire. Cases of this are the executions
of Marshals Michel Ney and Joachim Murat. As a means of insulting the
condemned, however, past executions have had them shot in the back, denied
blindfolds, or even tied to chairs. When Galeazzo Ciano, son-in-law of Benito
Mussolini, and several other former fascists who voted to remove Mussolini from
power were executed, they were tied to chairs facing away from their
executioners. By some reports, Ciano managed to twist his chair around at the
last second to face them, but this is unconfirmed.
By Country
Argentina
Manuel Dorrego, a prominent Argentine statesman and soldier
who governed Buenos Aires in the 1820s, was executed by firing squad on 12
December 1828 after being defeated in battle by Juan Lavalle and later
convicted of treason.
Belgium
On 12 October 1915 British nurse Edith Cavell was executed
by a German firing squad at the Tir national shooting range at Schaerbeek,
after being convicted of "conveying troops to the enemy" during the
First World War.
On 1 April 1916 a Belgian woman, Gabrielle Petit, was
executed by a German firing squad at Schaerbeek after being convicted of spying
for the British Secret Service during World War I.
During the Battle of the Bulge in World War II, three
captured German spies were tried and executed by a U.S. firing squad at
Henri-Chapelle on 23 December 1944. Thirteen other Germans were also tried and
shot at either Henri-Chapelle or Huy. These executed spies took part in
Waffen-SS commando Otto Skorzeny's Operation Greif, in which English-speaking
German commandos operated behind U.S. lines, masquerading in U.S. uniforms and
equipment.
Brazil
The Brazilian Constitution of 1988 expressly prohibits the
usage of capital punishment in peacetime, but authorizes the use of the death
penalty for military crimes committed during wartime. War must be declared
formally, in accordance with international law and article 84, item 19 of the
Federal Constitution, with due authorization from the Brazilian Congress. The
Brazilian Code of Military Penal Law, in its chapter dealing with wartime
offences, specifies the crimes that are subject to the death penalty. The death
penalty is never the only possible sentence for a crime, and the punishment
must be imposed by the military courts system. Per the norms of the Brazilian
Code of Military Penal Procedure, the death penalty is carried out by firing
squad.
Although Brazil still permits the use of capital punishment
during wartime, no convicts were actually executed during Brazil's last
military conflict, the Second World War. The military personnel sentenced to
death during World War II had their sentences reduced by the President of the
Republic.
Cuba
Cuba, as part of its penal system, still utilizes death by
firing squad, although the last recorded execution was in 2003. In January 1992
a Cuban exile convicted of "terrorism, sabotage and enemy propaganda"
was executed by firing squad. The Council of the State noted that the
punishment served as a deterrent and stated that the death penalty
"fulfills a goal of overall prevention, especially when the idea is to
stop such loathsome actions from being repeated, to deter others and so to
prevent innocent human lives from being endangered in the future".
During the months following the triumph of the Cuban
Revolution in 1959, soldiers of the Batista government and political opponents
to the revolution were executed by firing squad.
Finland
The death penalty was widely used during and after the
Finnish Civil War (January–May 1918); some 9,700 Finns and an unknown number of
Russian volunteers on the Red side were executed during the war or in its
aftermath. Most executions were carried out by firing squads after the
sentences were given by illegal or semi-legal courts martial. Only some 250
persons were sentenced to death in courts acting on legal authority.
During World War II some 500 persons were executed, half of
them condemned spies. The usual causes for death penalty for Finnish citizens
were treason and high treason (and to a lesser extent cowardice and
disobedience, applicable for military personnel). Almost all cases of capital
punishment were tried by court-martial. Usually the executions were carried out
by the regimental military police platoon, or by the local military police in
the case of spies. One Finn, Toivo Koljonen, was executed for a civilian crime
(six murders). Most executions occurred in 1941 and during the Soviet Summer
Offensive in 1944. The last death sentences were given in 1945 for murder, but
later commuted to life imprisonment.
The death penalty was abolished by Finnish law in 1949 for
crimes committed during peacetime, and in 1972 for all crimes. Finland is party
to the Optional protocol of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, forbidding the use of the death penalty in all circumstances.
France
Pte. Thomas Highgate was the first British soldier to be
convicted of desertion and executed by firing squad in September 1914 at
Tournan-en-Brie during World War I. In October 1916 Pte. Harry Farr was shot
for cowardice at Carnoy, which was later suspected to be acoustic shock.
Highgate and Farr, along with 304 other British and Imperial troops who were
executed for similar offenses, were listed at the Shot at Dawn Memorial which
was erected to honor them.
On 15 October 1917 Dutch exotic dancer Mata Hari was
executed by a French firing squad at Château de Vincennes castle in the town of
Vincennes after being convicted of spying for Germany during World War I.
During World War II, on 24 September 1944, Josef Wende and
Stephan Kortas, two Poles drafted into the German army, crossed the Moselle
Rivers behind U.S. lines in civilian clothes to observe Allied strength and
were to rejoin their own army on the same day. However, they were discovered by
the Americans and arrested. On 18 October 1944 they were found guilty of
espionage by a U.S. military commission and sentenced to death. On 11 November
1944 they were shot in the garden of a farmhouse at Toul. The footage of
Wende's execution as well as Kortas's is shown in these links.
On 31 January 1945, U.S. Army Pvt. Edward "Eddie"
Slovik was executed by firing squad for desertion near the village of
Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines. He was the first American soldier executed for such
offense since the American Civil War.
On 15 October 1945 Pierre Laval, the puppet leader of
Nazi-occupied Vichy France, was executed for treason at Fresnes Prison in
Paris.
On 11 March 1963 Jean Bastien-Thiry was the last person to
be executed by firing squad for a failed attempt to assassinate French
president Charles de Gaulle.
Indonesia
Execution by firing squad is the capital punishment method
used in Indonesia. The following persons were executed (reported by BBC World
Service) by firing squad on 29 April 2015 following convictions for drug
offences: two Australians, Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, the Ghanaian
Martin Anderson, the Indonesian Zainal Abidin bin Mgs Mahmud Badarudin, three
Nigerians: Raheem Agbaje Salami, Sylvester Obiekwe Nwolise and Okwudili
Oyatanze, as well as Brazilian Rodrigo Gularte.
In 2006 Fabianus Tibo, Dominggus da Silva and Marinus Riwu
were executed. Nigerian drug smugglers Samuel Iwachekwu Okoye and Hansen
Anthoni Nwaolisa were executed in June 2008 in Nusakambangan Island. Five
months later three men convicted for the 2002 Bali bombing—Amrozi, Imam Samudra
and Ali Ghufron—were executed on the same spot in Nusakambangan. In January
2013 56-year-old British woman Lindsay Sandiford was sentenced to execution by
firing squad for importing a large amount of cocaine; she lost her appeal
against her sentence in April 2013. On 18 January 2015, under the new
leadership of Joko Widodo, six people sentenced to death for producing and
smuggling drugs into Indonesia were executed at Nusa Kambangan Penitentiary
shortly after midnight.
Ireland
Following the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland, 15 of the 16
leaders who were executed were shot by the Dublin Castle administration under
martial law. The executions have often been cited as a reason for how the
Rising managed to galvanize public support in Ireland after the failed
rebellion.
Following the Anglo-Irish Treaty, a split in the government
and the Dáil led to a Civil War during which the Free State Government
sanctioned the executions by firing squad of 81 persons. Included in those
numbers were some prominent prisoners who were executed without trial as
reprisals. Records show that eleven soldiers would have had live rounds in
their weapons, and one soldier had a blank round. The officers loaded the
weapons for the soldiers so no soldier knew if his weapon contained the blank
round or a live one. This method was used to prevent the soldiers from being
prosecuted for war crimes in the future, as it was impossible to know which
soldier had fired a blank round, and therefore all soldiers could claim
innocence.
Italy
Italy had used the firing squad as its only form of death
penalty, both for civilians and military, since the unification of the country
in 1861. The death penalty was abolished completely by both Italian Houses of
Parliament in 1889 but revived under the Italian dictatorship of Benito
Mussolini in 1926. Mussolini was himself shot in the last days of World War II.
On 1 December 1945 Anton Dostler, the first German general
to be tried for war crimes, was executed by a U.S. firing squad in Aversa after
being found guilty by a U.S. military tribunal of ordering the killing of 15
U.S. prisoners of war in Italy during World War II.
The last execution took place on 4 March 1947, as Francesco
La Barbera, Giovanni Puleo and Giovanni D'Ignoti, sentenced to death on
multiple accounts of robbery and murder, faced the firing squad at the range of
Basse di Stura, near Turin. Soon after the Constitution of the newly proclaimed
Republic prohibited the death penalty except for some crimes of the military
penal code of war, like high treason; no one was sentenced to death after 1947.
In 2007 the Constitution was amended to ban the death penalty altogether.
Malta
Firing squads were used during the periods of French and
British control in Malta. Ringleaders of rebellions were often shot dead by
firing squad during the French period, with perhaps the most notable examples
being Dun Mikiel Xerri and other patriots in 1799.
The British also used the practice briefly, and for the last
time in 1813, when two men were shot separately outside the courthouse after
being convicted of failing to report their infection of plague to the
authorities.
Mexico
During the Mexican Independence War, several Independentist
generals (such as Miguel Hidalgo and José María Morelos) were executed by
Spanish firing squads. Also, Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico and two of his
generals were executed in the Cerro de las Campanas after the Juaristas took
control of Mexico in 1867. Manet immortalized the execution in a now-famous
painting, The Execution of Emperor Maximilian; he painted at least three
versions.
Firing-squad execution was the most common way to carry out
a death sentence in Mexico, especially during the Mexican Revolution and the
Cristero War. An example of that is in the attempted execution of Wenseslao
Moguel, who survived being shot ten times—once at point-blank range—because he
fought under Pancho Villa. After these events, the death sentence was imposed
for fewer types of crimes in Article 22 of the Mexican Constitution; however,
in 2005 capital punishment was constitutionally prohibited, and there has not
been a judicial execution since 1961.
Netherlands
During the Nazi occupation in World War II some 3,000
persons were executed by German firing squads. The victims were sometimes
sentenced by a military court; in other cases they were hostages or arbitrary
pedestrians who were executed publicly to intimidate the population. After the
attack on high-ranking German officer Hanns Albin Rauter, about 300 people were
executed publicly as reprisal against resistance movements. Rauter himself was
executed near Scheveningen on 12 January 1949, following his conviction for war
crimes. Anton Mussert, a Dutch Nazi leader, was sentenced to death by firing
squad and executed in the dunes near The Hague on 7 May 1946.
While under Allied guard in Amsterdam, and five days after
the capitulation of Nazi Germany, two German Navy deserters were shot by a
firing squad composed of other German prisoners kept in the Canadian-run
prisoner-of-war camp. The men were lined up against the wall of an air raid
shelter near an abandoned Ford Motor Company assembly plant in the presence of
Canadian military.
Nigeria
Nigeria executes criminals who committed armed
robberies—such as Ishola Oyenusi, Lawrence Anini and Osisikankwu—as well as
military officers convicted of plotting coups against the government, such as
Buka Suka Dimka and Maj. Gideon Orkar, by firing squad.
Norway
Vidkun Quisling, the leader of the collaborationist Nasjonal
Samling Party and president of Norway during the German occupation in World War
II, was sentenced to death for treason and executed by firing squad on 24
October 1945 at the Akershus Fortress.
Philippines
Jose Rizal was executed by firing squad on the morning of 30
December 1896, in what is now Rizal Park, where his remains have since been
placed.
While in [Cavite] there were 13 people who executed by
firing squad. They are known today as 13 martyrs of Cavite.
During the Marcos administration, drug trafficking was
punishable by firing-squad execution, as was done to Lim Seng. Execution by
firing squad was later replaced by the electric chair, then lethal injection.
On 24 June 2006, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo abolished capital punishment
through the enactment of Republic Act No. 9346. Existing death row inmates, who
numbered in the thousands, were eventually given life sentences or reclusion
perpetua instead.
Romania
Marshal Ion Antonescu who presided over two successive
wartime dictatorships during most of World War II, his Deputy Prime Minister
and Foreign Minister Mihai Antonescu, Gheorghe Alexianu governor of Transnistria
between 1941 and 1944, and Constantin Z. Vasiliu head or Romanian Gendarmerie,
were executed by a military firing squad on 1 June 1946. Antonescu raised his
hat in salute once the firing order was given.
Nicolae Ceaușescu was executed by firing squad alongside his
wife Elena Ceausescu while singing the Communist Internationale following a
show trial, bringing an end to the Romanian Revolution, on Christmas Day, 1989.
Russia/USSR
In Imperial Russia, firing squads were used in the army for
executions during combat on the orders of military tribunals.
In the Soviet Union, from the very earliest days, the bullet
to the back of the head, in front of a ready-dug burial trench was by far the
most common practice. It became especially widely used during the Great Purge.
Saudi Arabia
Executions in Saudi Arabia are usually carried out by
beheading; however, at times other methods have been used. Al-Beshi, a Saudi
executioner, has said that he has conducted some executions by shooting.
Mishaal bint Fahd bin Mohammed Al Saud, a Saudi princess, was also executed in
the same way.
South Africa
Two soldiers of the Bushveldt Carbineers, Breaker Morant and
Peter Handcock, were executed by a British firing squad in the South African
Republic on 27 February 1902 for war crimes they committed during the Second
Boer War.
Spain
Since the Spanish transition to democracy in 1977 the new
Spanish constitution prohibits the death penalty. Previously, execution by
firing squad was reserved for cases under military jurisdiction. As in the rest
of Europe, the death penalty ordered by a civil court was carried out by other
methods clearly different from execution. In modern times, mainly by hanging or
garrote.
During the decolonization of the Americas, several heroes of
the independence of the former viceroyalties were executed by firing squad,
including Camilo Torres Tenorio, Antonio Baraya, Antonio Villavicencio, José
María Carbonell, Francisco José de Caldas, Jorge Tadeo Lozano, Policarpa
Salavarrieta, María Antonia Santos Plata, José María Morelos, Mariano
Matamoros, etc.
At the time of the Spanish Civil War the phrase "¡Al
paredón!" ("To the wall!") to express the death threat to whom
certain blame is attributed to be summarily executed. "Dar un paseo"
(Going for a walk) is the euphemism of a series of violent episodes and
political repression that occurred during the Spanish Civil War, which took
place on both the Republican and the Nationalist factions, looking for victims
with the excuse of taking them for a walk, which ended with the shooting in the
open fields, often at night. It was an abbreviated murder procedure in the form
of the Ley de fugas (Law for escapes). Sometimes common criminals participated
in them.
Indalecio Prieto would define these executions in Letters to
a sculptor: small details of great events as "Executions without summary
that were carried out in both areas of Spain and that dishonored us Spaniards
on both sides equally".
The last use of capital punishment in Spain took place on 27
September 1975 by firing squads for two members of the terrorist group ETA
political-military and three members of the Revolutionary Antifascist Patriotic
Front (FRAP).
United Arab Emirates
In the United Arab Emirates, firing squad is the preferred
method of execution.
United Kingdom and British
Dominions
The standard method of execution in the United Kingdom was
hanging. Execution by firing squad was limited to times of war, armed
insurrection and in the military, although it is now outlawed in all
circumstances, along with all other forms of capital punishment.
The Tower of London was used during both World Wars for
executions. During World War I, eleven captured German spies were shot between
1914 and 1916: nine on the Tower's rifle range and two in the Tower Ditch, all
of whom were buried in East London Cemetery, in Plaistow, London. On 15 August
1941, the last execution at the Tower was that of German Cpl. Josef Jakobs,
shot for espionage during World War II.
Since the 1960s, there has been some controversy concerning
the 346 British and Imperial troops—including 25 Canadians, 22 Irish and 5 New
Zealanders—shot for desertion, murder, cowardice and other offences during
World War I, some of whom are now thought to have been suffering from combat
stress reaction or post-traumatic stress disorder ("shell-shock", as
it was then known). This led to organizations such as the Shot at Dawn Campaign
being set up in later years to try to uncover just why these soldiers were
executed. The Shot at Dawn Memorial was erected at Staffordshire to honor these
soldiers. In August 2006 it was announced that 306 of these soldiers would
receive posthumous pardons.
United States
During the American War of Independence, General Washington
was said to have "approved hundreds of death sentences by either hanging
or firing squad". Mutiny could be dealt with in a harsh manner, as
occurred at Pompton New Jersey in January 1781, where three soldiers (one being
reprieved at the last minute) were selected to be shot from among a large group
of mutineers. The firing squad was ordered to be composed of their fellow
mutineers. On occasion however, pardons were also granted.
During the American Civil War, 433 of the 573 men executed
were shot dead by a firing squad: 186 of the 267 executed by the Union Army,
and 247 of the 306 executed by the Confederate Army.
The United States Army carried out 10 executions of its own
soldiers by firing squad during World War II from 1942 to 1945, including Eddie
Slovik, the only US soldier to be executed for desertion. However, this does
not include individuals executed by the US Army by firing squad after being
convicted by US military courts for violations of the laws of war, including
about 18 German soldiers who were shot after being caught in American uniform
as part of Operation Greif during the Battle of the Bulge, persons shot after
being caught engaging in acts of espionage against US forces, or soldiers
convicted by US military courts of having committed crimes against American
military personnel.
The United States Army took over Shepton Mallet prison in
Somerset, U.K. in 1942, renaming it Disciplinary Training Center No.1 and
housing troops convicted of offences across Europe. There were eighteen
executions at the prison, two of them by firing squad for murder: U.S. Army
Pvt. Alexander Miranda on 30 May 1944 and Pvt. Benjamin Pygate on 28 November
1944. Locals complained about the noise, as the executions took place in the
prison yard at 1:00am.
In 1913, Andriza Mircovich became the first and only inmate
in Nevada to be executed by shooting. After the warden of Nevada State Prison
could not find five men to form a firing squad, a shooting machine was built to
carry out Mircovich's execution.
John W. Deering allowed an electrocardiogram recording of
the effect of gunshot wounds on his heart during his 1938 execution by firing
squad, and afterwards his body was donated to the University of Utah School of
Medicine, at his request.
Since 1960 there have been six executions by firing squad,
four in Utah and two in South Carolina: The 1960 execution of James W. Rodgers,
Gary Gilmore's execution in 1977, John Albert Taylor in 1996, who chose a
firing squad for his execution, according to The New York Times, "to make
a statement that Utah was sanctioning murder". However, a 2010 article for
the British newspaper The Times quotes Taylor justifying his choice because he
did not want to "flop around like a dying fish" during a lethal
injection. Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed by firing squad in 2010, having said
he preferred this method of execution because of his "Mormon
heritage". Gardner also felt that lawmakers were trying to eliminate the
firing squad, in opposition to popular opinion in Utah, because of concern over
the state's image in the 2002 Winter Olympics. Brad Sigmon was executed in
South Carolina on March 7, 2025 after also opting a firing squad. On April 11,
2025, Mikal Mahdi became the second inmate to be executed by firing squad in
South Carolina.
Execution by firing squad was banned in Utah in 2004, but as
the ban was not retroactive, three inmates on Utah's death row have the firing
squad set as their method of execution. Idaho banned execution by firing squad
in 2009, temporarily leaving Oklahoma as the only state utilizing this method
of execution (and only as a secondary method).
Reluctance by drug companies to see their drugs used to kill
people has led to a shortage of the commonly used lethal injection drugs. In
March 2015, Utah enacted legislation allowing for execution by firing squad if
the drugs they use are unavailable. Several other states are also exploring a
return to the firing squad. Thus, after waning in both use and popularity in
recent decades, as of 2022, firing squad executions appear to be at least
anecdotally regaining popularity as an alternative to lethal injection.
On January 30, 2019, South Carolina's Senate voted 26–13 in
favor of a revived proposal to bring back the electric chair and add firing
squads to its execution options. On May 14, 2021, South Carolina Governor Henry
McMaster signed a bill into law which brought back the electric chair as the
default method of execution (in the event lethal injection was unavailable) and
added the firing squad to the list of execution options. South Carolina had not
performed executions in over a decade, and its lethal injection drugs expired
in 2013. Pharmaceutical companies have since refused to sell drugs for lethal
injection.
On April 7, 2022, the South Carolina Supreme Court scheduled
the execution of Richard Bernard Moore for April 29, 2022. On April 15, 2022,
Moore chose to be executed by firing squad instead of the electric chair,
however, his execution was later stayed by the South Carolina Supreme Court,
and was executed on November 1, 2024 by lethal injection.
On March 20, 2023, a firing squad bill passed the Idaho state
legislature, and was signed by the governor.
In 2023, The Tennessee legislature debated about using the
firing squad as a means of execution.
On February 7, 2025, the South Carolina Supreme Court
scheduled the execution of Brad Sigmon for March 7, 2025. He was given the
choice to die by lethal injection, firing squad, or electrocution, the latter
of which his lawyers stated he did not want to die from. Due to concerns about
the lethal injection doses, on February 21, 2025, Sigmon chose to die by firing
squad. On March 7, 2025, at just after 6 PM EST, Sigmon was executed and
pronounced dead a few minutes later.
Three weeks after Sigmon was executed, Mikal Mahdi, another
prisoner from South Carolina's death row, also elected to be put to death by
firing squad after receiving an execution date of April 11, 2025. He was
executed as scheduled, becoming the fifth person in the United States and the
second in South Carolina to be executed by this method. His execution is the
most recent one to have been carried out by firing squad in the United States.
On March 12, 2025, Idaho Governor Brad Little signed a bill
to designate firing squad as the primary execution method in the state. Idaho
became the first state with such a policy.
Ralph Leroy Menzies, Utah's longest-serving death row
inmate, was scheduled to be executed by firing squad on September 5, 2025,
after the state courts found he was mentally competent to be executed despite
his symptoms of dementia. On 29 August 2025, the Utah Supreme Court vacated
Menzies' death warrant and ordered a new mental competency hearing.
As of 2025, Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina,
and Utah are the only states that use firing squad for the death penalty.
Further Reading
Moore, William,
The Thin Yellow Line, Wordsworth Editions Ltd, 1974
Putkowski and
Sykes, Shot at Dawn, Leo Cooper, 2006
Hughs-Wilson,
John and Corns, Cathryn M, Blindfold and Alone: British Military Executions in
the Great War, Cassell, 2005
Johnson, David,
Executed at Dawn: The British Firing Squads of the First World War, History
Press, 2015
 |
| Mass execution of 56 Polish citizens in Bochnia, near Kraków, following the Nazi invasion of Poland, December 18, 1939. |
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| Execution
of a Soviet infiltrator by a Finnish firing squad during the
Continuation War, 1941–1944. Finnish Defense Forces photo. |
 |
| German
General Anton Dostler is tied to a stake before his execution by a
firing squad in the Aversa stockade. The General was convicted and
sentenced to death by an American military tribunal. Aversa, Italy,
December 1, 1945. US Army Signal Corps photo. |
 |
| Mihai Antonescu and Ion Antonescu right before their execution. |
 |
| The
execution of Marshall Ion Antonescu, former dictator of Romania
(1940-1944) at the Fort Jilava prison in a suburb of Bucharest. He was
executed along with three others: Mihai Antonescu (the former
vice-president and minister of foreign affairs), Gheorge Alexianu
(former governor of Transnistria), and General C.Z. Vasiliu (former
deputy minister of interior affairs and head of the gendarmerie). June
1,1946. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum photo 07837. |
 |
| Chair
in which Josef Jakobs sat when he was executed by firing squad August
15, 1941 at the Tower of London. The chair is at the Tower. |
 |
| German
Fallschirmjager paratroopers prepare to execute civilians in the Greek
village of Kondomari, Crete, 2 June 1941. Bundesarchiv photo Bild
101I-166-0525-39. |
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| Wehrmacht soldiers are preparing to kill Polish hostages in Bydgoszcz, Poland, 9 September 1939. |
 |
| Members
of the French Forces of the Interior carry out the death sentence of
six young Frenchmen convicted of collaborating with the Germans,
Grenoble, France, on 22 September 1944. US National Archives and Records
Administration (NAID) 196291. |
 |
| Public execution of Poles in German-occupied Sosnowiec, Poland, in 1939. |
.jpg) |
| Serbo-Croatian: Execution of Rade Končar and his comrades in Šibenik on 22 May 1942. |
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| Shooting of hostages in Gorenjska, Slovenia, on 22 August 1941. |
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| The execution by a French firing squad of two Axis spies in Aleppo, 28 September 1943. Imperial War Museum photo E 26270. |
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| Prisoners from Begunje shot as hostages in Moste pri Žirovnici, Slovenia, in 1941. |
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| Frenchmen seized as hostages lost their lives blind-folded in front of the firing squads at the Vincennes shooting range. |
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| The hostage has been executed by the German soldiers. |
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| German
reprisals against civilians in occupied countries: French Forces of the
Interior and Paris policemen inspect the execution chamber in the
cellars of the former Ministry of Aviation building in Paris.
(Photograph taken after liberation). Imperial War Museum photo EA 36120. |
 |
| A
collaborator is executed by the French police in Rennes,
Ille-et-Vilaine, France, on 21 November 1944. US National Archives and
Records Administration (NAID) 531224. |
 |
| Soviet infiltrator about to be executed by Finnish forces. Finnish Defense Forces photo. |
.jpg)
