Less Fortunate Soldiers

At sunrise April, the twenty-fifth day,

round Australia the Last Post playing,

as you offer thanks I ask if I may

for less fortunate soldiers be praying.

Called deserter retreating from cross-fire

or wandering from the barrage all vague,

shell-shocked, confused. Punishment dire,

referred to rules made by General Haig.

Sentence military execution.

Dishonour, shame, family name sullied.

A century of false degradation,

the label of cowards we have carried.

Replace our tombstones, let families mourn.

Absolve the slur and remove ‘shot at dawn’.

 

To my knowledge no Australian soldier was executed for desertion in the Great War.
General Haig did approach the Australian government for authority (there were apparently a few ‘scallywags’ he wanted to make examples out of) but was refused it.
Maybe they had learned from The Breaker?

I don’t know about American soldiers,

But there were many Englishmen who were used as examples to put the fear of the consequences of running away into the troops. One soldier was shot for retreating 20 yards to a bunker when caught in crossfire in no man's land.
Many others were shell-shocked and did not even know what was happening.

These men (the majority, if not all, innocent of any wrong), despite petitions to the government, still have the words ‘shot at dawn’ on their records and many as far as I know still have the words on their gravesites.