Penal military unit

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Battalions of Light Infantry of Africa, a French Army penal military unit, depicted in battle during the French conquest of Algeria in 1833

A penal military unit, also known as a penal formation, disciplinary unit, or just penal unit (usually named for their formation and size, such as penal battalion for

prisoners of war
who have chosen to side with their captors, or a combination of these groups.

Service in penal military units is generally considered a form of punishment, discipline, or penal labour, used in lieu of, or offered as an alternative to, imprisonment or capital punishment. Penal units have historically been used as disposable cannon fodder, treated poorly or with little regard and used in compromising or dangerous situations (commonly suicide missions such as demining or forlorn hope advance parties), as march battalions that maintain replacement personnel as reserves, or kept in the rear for military operations other than war or menial labour relating to the war effort, guarded and overseen by regular military units, military police, or barrier troops to ensure they do not attempt to escape, retreat, or mutiny. However, this is not always the case: some penal units are treated the same as regular units and, depending on military organization, a dedicated penal unit may not exist at all, with convicts instead being placed in a regular unit. Rewards and incentives for convicts to serve in a penal unit vary—often expungement, commutation, stay of execution, or a pardon—though penal units used as punishment typically lack those by nature.

The first known penal military units were established in

conscripts for military personnel, and convicts and criminals—typically only accepted into military service out of necessity—usually being placed into regular units. The hiring of prisoners for combat and military service, often in exchange for freedom, is a common trope in modern fiction and popular culture
, with narratives centering around penal units appearing in films, television, novels, and video games.

History

One of the earliest examples of penal military units was recorded in the Chinese annals

Dedicated penal units were first envisioned during the

wars of the coalition, especially during the later years of the conflicts as manpower became limited. The Régiment pénal de l'Île de Ré, formed in 1811 and composed almost entirely of criminals and other societal undesirables, would see action during the later years of the Napoleonic Wars.[3]

The disbandment of conscripted armies and end of large scale warfare following the Napoleonic era led to the decline of the penal battalion system in continental Europe. However, the system continued in overseas colonies, again with the French as the primary employers of penal battalions. The Battalions of Light Infantry of Africa (Bats d'Af) was formed by order of Louis Philippe I in 1832 for the purpose of expanding the French colonial empire.[4] The Battalions fought in the French conquest of Algeria and during the Crimean War.[5] The French also employed the compagnies d'exclus ("companies of the excluded"), military units which were stationed at Aîn-Sefra in Southern Algeria. In contrast to the Bats d'Af, the compagnies d'exclus were outright penal units consisting of convicts condemned to five years or more of hard labor and judged unworthy to carry weapons.[6]

The various

Italian unification conflicts saw the Redshirts
recruiting convicts and revolutionaries from prisons into penal regiments known as Battaglioni degli imprigionati ("Battalions of the Imprisoned" or "Prisoners Battalion".)

Prior to the early 1900s, the Portuguese Empire relied largely on military convicts to augment the regular and indigenous troops employed to provide garrisons for its overseas colonies.

During World War I, the British Armed Forces were mobilized for military service. Courts offered defendants the option of enlisting to avoid imprisonment, while young offenders in borstals and adult prisoners were granted early release for their service. Though government officials publicly claimed criminals were unfit for service, and prisoners were viewed as lacking "the sense of duty that encouraged other men to enlist", the recruitment of prisoners was a military necessity, and prisoners were reportedly sought out for their violent nature and to ease the cost of the prison system in wartime.[7]

The period of military rearmament preceding World War II caused renewed interest in the concept of penal military units. In May 1935 the German Wehrmacht instituted a new policy under German conscription law that stated soldiers who were deemed disruptive to military discipline but were otherwise "worthy of service" would be sent to military penal units. Criminals were also conscripted into penal units in exchange for lighter sentences or as a form of stay of execution.[8] These units, referred to as "special departments" or the generic term Strafbataillon, were overseen by the German military police. Prior to World War II, there were nine Strafbataillone within the Wehrmacht. The primary role of a Strafbataillon was to provide front line support. As the war progressed, the size of Strafbataillon companies dramatically increased in size due to changes in German military policy. Under such policies, any soldier who had a death sentence (for retreat) commuted was automatically reassigned to penal units, greatly increasing the number of soldiers available to the Strafbataillon.

The effectiveness of Strafbataillone were mixed. The combination of criminals, political prisoners, and undisciplined soldiers that made up a Strafbataillon often required harsh measures to be imposed for unit cohesion to be maintained. Strafbataillone were often ordered to undertake high risk missions on the front line, with soldiers being coached to regain their lost honor by fighting.

999th Light Afrika Division, suffered from poor morale and saw soldiers desert the Wehrmacht to join resistance groups.[13]

Following Operation Barbarossa and the entry of the Soviet Union into World War II, the Red Army began to seriously consider the implementation of penal military units. These efforts resulted in the creation of Shtrafbat, penal military units composed of sentenced soldiers, political prisoners, and others deemed to be expendable. A large number of Red Army soldiers who retreated without orders during the initial German invasion were reorganized into rudimentary penal units, the precursors to dedicated Shtrafbat. The Shtrafbat were greatly increased in number by Joseph Stalin in July 1942 via Order No. 227 (Директива Ставки ВГК №227). Order No. 227 was a desperate effort to re-instill discipline after the panicked routs of the first year of combat with Germany. The order—popularized as the "Not one step back!" (Ни шагу назад!, Ni shagu nazad!) Order—introduced severe punishments, including summary execution, for unauthorized retreats.[14][15]

During the Chinese Civil War, between 1945 and 1949, the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) was known to have fielded penal battalions. Made up of deserters and those accused of cowardice, these penal battalions were given dangerous tasks such as scouting ahead of the main forces to check for ambushes, crossing rivers and torrents to see whether they were fordable, and traversing unmapped minefields.[16]

In the United States, the United States Armed Forces historically fielded penal units and permitted the enlistment of prisoners. During the American Civil War, the Union permitted Galvanized Yankees, Confederate prisoners of war who swore allegiance to the Union, into their ranks in penal units from 1862 to around 1866. During World War II, prisoners were permitted to provide to the war effort, and in 1942, it was reported that several prisoners had offered to enlist in the military to fight in the war, with some even receiving training ahead of enlistment, though no penal units are known to have been formed in the U.S. military.[17]

Well into the 20th century, U.S. courts offered defendants the choice between enlistment and prison, a practice that continued through both world wars and the

U.S. Navy, which does not have specific prohibitions but still strongly discourages it as a protocol),[20] and do not maintain any penal formations, though ex-convicts with felony priors are still permitted with a proper felony waiver.[21][22] In 2021, the Florida Legislature proposed a bill that would formally permit first-time offenders 25-years-old or younger to enlist instead of facing imprisonment, though it did not pass.[19][23]

In the modern day, the practice of fielding penal military units has largely stopped, with most militaries discouraging or outright prohibiting the acceptance of convicts, though some militaries accept ex-convicts provided they fulfill certain requirements, such as having a proper waiver. For example, a U.S. military recruiter told The Daily Beast in 2018 that recruitment candidates can have "one non-violent felony as an adult", and that "some of the best and most capable candidates we get require a waiver".[21] However, though rare, the practice of accepting convicts into armed forces has continued or been made permissible in some jurisdictions and situations. During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, for instance, the Armed Forces of Ukraine permitted the recruitment of Ukrainian prisoners with prior combat experience,[24] and Russian private military company Wagner Group began hiring Russian inmates to fill their ranks.[25][26][27]

By country

Belgium

Bolivia

Finland

  • Erillinen Pataljoona 21 ("Separate Battalion 21") – A Finnish Army penal battalion founded in August 1941, from volunteering prisoners and leftists in protective custody, that fought in the Continuation War. Commanded by Major Nikke Pärmi, the distinguishing mark of Er.P 21 was the black V sewn into the sleeve of their uniform; these gave them the nicknames of "Pärmi's Devils" and "Black Arrow".[37]

France

Germany

Italy

  • Cacciatori Franchi ("Frankish Hunters") – The penal unit of the Royal Sardinian Army. Established around 1741, the unit existed until 1878, when disciplinary companies were established.[38]
  • Battaglione di Rigore ("Penalty Battalion") – The penal unit of the Italian Social Republic military.
  • Battaglioni degli Imprigionati ("Battalions of the Imprisoned") – Penal battalions of the Redshirts in the Wars of Italian Unification, composed of prisoners and revolutionaries.

Russia

South Korea

  • standoff
    that led to the deaths of most of the unit and the capture and execution of the remaining survivors.

Soviet Union

  • Shtrafbat – Penal battalions of the Red Army and NKVD, composed of sentenced soldiers, political prisoners, and others deemed to be expendable, fighting on the Eastern Front of World War II. Established in 1942 by Joseph Stalin in Order No. 227, over 422,000 prisoners were placed into shtrafbats until their disestablishment following victory in Europe in May 1945, by which point very few had survived.

United States

In popular culture

See also

Notes

  1. ^ 《汉书 卷六十一 张骞李广利传 第三十一》: 赦囚徒扞寇盜,發惡少年及邊騎,歲餘而出敦煌六萬人,負私從者不與。 牛十萬,馬三萬匹,驢橐駝以萬數齎糧,兵弩甚設。 天下騷動,轉相奉伐宛,五十餘校尉。
  2. ^ a b Bertaud, Jean-Paul (1988). The Army of the French Revolution: From Citizen-soldier to Instrument of Power. Princeton University Press.
  3. ^ "Re: French Penal Regiment Organization". www.napoleon-series.org. Archived from the original on 2018-04-11. Retrieved 2017-02-11.
  4. ^ Sicard, Jacques (1994). Les Bataillons d'Infanterie Legere d'Afrique et leurs insignes, 1832-1972. p. 49.
  5. ^ "The Soldier's Burden". www.kaiserscross.com. Retrieved 2017-02-11.
  6. ^ Musée de l'infanterie - "Les Bataillons d'Afrique"
  7. ^ McKay, Cameron (2021-05-27). "'Likely to make good soldiers': mobilizing Britain's criminal population during the First World War". academic.oup.com. Retrieved 2023-05-23.
  8. ^ Grunberger, Richard (1971). The 12-Year Reich: A Social History of Nazi Germany, 1933–1945. Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
  9. .
  10. ^ Borowiec, Andrew. Destroy Warsaw!: Hitler's Punishment, Stalin's Reveng. p. 101.
  11. ^ Ingrao, Christian (2011). The SS Dirlewanger Brigade - The History of the Black Hunters. Skyhorse Publishing. pp. 98–99.
  12. ^ Cooper, Matthew. The Nazi War Against Soviet Partisans, 1941–1944. p. 88.
  13. ^ Nafziger, George F. The Afrika Korps: An organizational history 1941–1943.
  14. ^ Tolstoy 1981
  15. ^ Suvorov 1982
  16. .
  17. ^ "Patriotism behind bars: U.S. prisons aid the war effort". World War 2.0. 1942-05-09. Retrieved 2023-05-23.
  18. ^ Cooper, Steve (September 2010). "Gunny R. Lee Ermey Unplugged". The First Shot. Civilian Marksmanship Program. Retrieved April 16, 2018.
  19. ^ a b Stofan, Jake (2021-12-28). "New legislation would allow military service in lieu of prison time". WJHG-TV. Retrieved 2023-05-23.
  20. ^ a b "Can Military Service Actually Be an Alternative to Jail Time?". LiveAbout. Retrieved 2023-05-23.
  21. ^ a b Rohrlich, Justin (2018-04-23). "How the Army Recruits Straight Out of Prisons". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2023-05-23.
  22. ^ "When inmates become US Army soldiers". Corrections1. 22 March 2010. Retrieved 2023-05-23.
  23. ^ "Senate Bill 1356 (2023) - The Florida Senate". www.flsenate.gov. Retrieved 2023-05-23.
  24. ^ "Ukrainian prisoners with combat history to be released to help defend against Russia". The Independent. 28 February 2022. Archived from the original on 2022-09-04. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  25. ^ "Wagner Group Is Sending Russian Inmates to Fight in Ukraine, Report Says". news.yahoo.com. 5 July 2022. Retrieved 2022-07-05.
  26. ^ "Russia's Wagner mercenaries halt prisoner recruitment campaign - Prigozhin". Reuters. 9 February 2023. Retrieved 2023-02-22.
  27. ISSN 0261-3077
    . Retrieved 2023-05-23.
  28. ^ Geert Herman, Nieuwsblad, 7 juli 2014, article in Dutch
  29. ^ Peter Verplancke, VRT, 15 juli 2018, article in Dutch
  30. ^ Tom Simoens, CHTP-BEG - n° 23 / 2011, article in Dutch Van arrangeren tot renseigneren. Smaad en geweld Van militairen Tegen hun oversten tijdens de eerste wereldoorlog Archived 2019-12-03 at the Wayback Machine
  31. .
  32. ^ "La obra de los carabineros en la Guerra del Chaco sube a las tablas". 3 August 2021.
  33. ^ "Los macheteros de la muerte".
  34. ^ http://www.revistasbolivianas.ciencia.bo/pdf/fdc/v11n48/v11n48_a15.pdf [bare URL PDF]
  35. ^ "Tesoros policiales".
  36. ^ "CEFOTES rememora en el teatro una historia de la Guerra del Chaco". 11 August 2021.
  37. ^ Vaara, Topi: Pärmin pirut : Er.P 21:n vaiheita jatkosodassa 1941–1942. Helsinki: Otava, 1977. ISBN 951-10452-7-X.
  38. ^ "Cacciatori Franchi". www.carabinieri.it (in Italian). Retrieved 2023-05-21.
  39. ^ Lewis, Kaitlin (April 7, 2023). "Ukrainian reserve officer says Russia is forming special "Storm Z" units". Newsweek.
  40. ^ https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-recruited-convicts-fierce-assault-units-storm-gladiator-/32806371.html

References

External links