Field Punishment No1
Field
punishment was a form of punishing the conscientious objectors in WWI, it was
used to humiliate men and was the most common form of punishment and was originally intended to humiliate the soldiers but turned into a form of torture, the aim was to break the conscientious objectors.
There were rules and regulations surrounding field punishment, no more than two hours a day for 21 consecutive days in every month. Also straps and rope could be used instead of irons. A commanding officer could impose a maximum of 28 days, and a court martial three months. Every field punishment had to be, inflicted so it “didn’t cause injury “every portion of a field punishment had to be inflicted in such a manner not cause injury or to leave any mark on the offender. However regulations surrounding field punishment were often abused. In late 1916 a British soldier died undergoing field punishment. As a result a survey was conducted throughout the British and New Zealand Armies to decide whether field punishment was right, Dudley Kettle believed that after Field Punishment it made the committed more strong willed to defy. Therefore after the death of the British solider the rules and regulations of field punishment changed to inflict “no bodily harm”. Many unsupervised redcaps, including those who punished Kirwan, Baxter and Briggs, ignored the new ‘humanitarian regulations’. As Baxter recalls in his novel we will not cease, the experience of field punishment number one at Mud Farm, he said his hands were “black with congested blood” at the end of each session and the enforcers did not follow the revised manual of military law. Many soldiers were treated like Baxter some worse. One solider had bruises and scars all over his body from being hammered to hurry up by a long stick and constantly kicked. Between 1914 – 1918, as many as 296 New Zealand soldiers were sentenced to three months field punishment for various reasons. Brigadier General Sir George Richardson had no sympathy for conscientious objectors and believed the objectors should be separated and given field punishment then given further field punishment if they continued to resist and if they still resisted they were imprisoned. The conscientious objectors were kept separate and isolated, they were handcuffed and forcibly dressed in uniform and frequently abused by police.
Archibald Baxter, M.Briggs, H,Patton and L.Kirwan were all sentenced to field punishment number one, Baxter was not deemed as fit enough to undergo field punishment but the doctor deemed him fit “your such a dammed fool, you deserve all you get”. Food portions were rationed and reduced when preforming field punishment. His first diet was a three day diet of bread and water. Baxter described the second the second as “a slice of bread with a scrape of fat on it and dinner was bully beef and stale biscuit with hot water poured over it. The food was not enough to undergo field punishment safely.
Most of the time Baxter talks about him being constantly physically and verbally abused, however sometimes he was not treated so terribly by military officials – one talked to Baxter for hours and told him that he would not have to undergo ant further field punishment while he was under his control. He also gave Baxter some freedoms allowing him to rome. However most of his experiences with military officials, were nit like this he was constantly abused and was told that he should “not be permitted to live”.
Baxter records his experience on Mud Farm undergoing field punishment by saying “The sergeant was an expert at the job… He knew how to pull and strain the ropes till the cut into the flesh and completely stopped the circulation. When I was taken off my hand were always black with congested blood… the slope of the post brought my body into a hanging position, causing a large part of my weight to fall on my arms and I couldn’t not get a proper grip with my feet on the ground…”
Baxter also said that field punishment not only took a toll on his body but also his mental health, he felt as though he was going mad, but somehow he found the strength to continue. Baxter was strung up alone and isolated from anyone else. The living conditions at Mud Farm were also terrible the objectors were given one thin blanket to sleep on, and slept on the dirt floor “I was alternatively burning hot and shivering cold and the constant pain in my joints woke me whenever I did dose off, with exhaustion”. Baxter and the other conscientious objectors were forced to brace the weather of a blizzard; Baxter did not have his top coat on and was left hanging on the poles while the temperatures dropped to below zero degrees. “The cold was intense a deadly numbness crept up until it reached my heart and I felt that every breath I drew would be my last. Everything grew black around me”
There were rules and regulations surrounding field punishment, no more than two hours a day for 21 consecutive days in every month. Also straps and rope could be used instead of irons. A commanding officer could impose a maximum of 28 days, and a court martial three months. Every field punishment had to be, inflicted so it “didn’t cause injury “every portion of a field punishment had to be inflicted in such a manner not cause injury or to leave any mark on the offender. However regulations surrounding field punishment were often abused. In late 1916 a British soldier died undergoing field punishment. As a result a survey was conducted throughout the British and New Zealand Armies to decide whether field punishment was right, Dudley Kettle believed that after Field Punishment it made the committed more strong willed to defy. Therefore after the death of the British solider the rules and regulations of field punishment changed to inflict “no bodily harm”. Many unsupervised redcaps, including those who punished Kirwan, Baxter and Briggs, ignored the new ‘humanitarian regulations’. As Baxter recalls in his novel we will not cease, the experience of field punishment number one at Mud Farm, he said his hands were “black with congested blood” at the end of each session and the enforcers did not follow the revised manual of military law. Many soldiers were treated like Baxter some worse. One solider had bruises and scars all over his body from being hammered to hurry up by a long stick and constantly kicked. Between 1914 – 1918, as many as 296 New Zealand soldiers were sentenced to three months field punishment for various reasons. Brigadier General Sir George Richardson had no sympathy for conscientious objectors and believed the objectors should be separated and given field punishment then given further field punishment if they continued to resist and if they still resisted they were imprisoned. The conscientious objectors were kept separate and isolated, they were handcuffed and forcibly dressed in uniform and frequently abused by police.
Archibald Baxter, M.Briggs, H,Patton and L.Kirwan were all sentenced to field punishment number one, Baxter was not deemed as fit enough to undergo field punishment but the doctor deemed him fit “your such a dammed fool, you deserve all you get”. Food portions were rationed and reduced when preforming field punishment. His first diet was a three day diet of bread and water. Baxter described the second the second as “a slice of bread with a scrape of fat on it and dinner was bully beef and stale biscuit with hot water poured over it. The food was not enough to undergo field punishment safely.
Most of the time Baxter talks about him being constantly physically and verbally abused, however sometimes he was not treated so terribly by military officials – one talked to Baxter for hours and told him that he would not have to undergo ant further field punishment while he was under his control. He also gave Baxter some freedoms allowing him to rome. However most of his experiences with military officials, were nit like this he was constantly abused and was told that he should “not be permitted to live”.
Baxter records his experience on Mud Farm undergoing field punishment by saying “The sergeant was an expert at the job… He knew how to pull and strain the ropes till the cut into the flesh and completely stopped the circulation. When I was taken off my hand were always black with congested blood… the slope of the post brought my body into a hanging position, causing a large part of my weight to fall on my arms and I couldn’t not get a proper grip with my feet on the ground…”
Baxter also said that field punishment not only took a toll on his body but also his mental health, he felt as though he was going mad, but somehow he found the strength to continue. Baxter was strung up alone and isolated from anyone else. The living conditions at Mud Farm were also terrible the objectors were given one thin blanket to sleep on, and slept on the dirt floor “I was alternatively burning hot and shivering cold and the constant pain in my joints woke me whenever I did dose off, with exhaustion”. Baxter and the other conscientious objectors were forced to brace the weather of a blizzard; Baxter did not have his top coat on and was left hanging on the poles while the temperatures dropped to below zero degrees. “The cold was intense a deadly numbness crept up until it reached my heart and I felt that every breath I drew would be my last. Everything grew black around me”
Trailer for the New Zealand movie Field Punishment No1 details the story of Archibald Baxter, Mark Briggs, Lawerence Kirwan and the other fourteen conscientious objectors sent to the Western Front in an attempt to convert their beliefs
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