Executed Military Personnel

A 1979 videotaped remark pushes Saddam’s cousin from messenger to power: how did a motorcycle courier author orders that turned regions into killing zones? The videotaped line that pushed Saddam to embrace greater cruelty In this episode, we walk through the recorded moments, career moves, and decrees that trace Ali Hassan al-Majid’s rise from poverty to power and the bureaucratic steps that enabled mass violence. What do a single videotaped sentence and a signed administrative order reveal about how cruelty was institutionalized? Person: Ali Hassan al-Majid Location: Al-Awja, near Tikrit; Kurdish regions of northern Iraq Date: July 1979 (videotaped meeting); March 1987 (decree); April 1987 (chemical attacks begin) Position: Secretary General of the Northern Bureau; head of the Mukhabarat (Iraqi Intelligence Service) Event: Videotaped counsel advocating greater cruelty; decree ordering killing of “any human being or animal” in specified areas - Born into the Bejat clan of the Al-Bu Nasir tribe with no formal birth record, al-Majid rose from motorcycle messenger to military and security roles. - After the 1968 Ba'ath takeover he entered the Military Academy and entered the orbit of Saddam’s inner circle, trading credentials for tribal loyalty. - On a videotaped July 1979 assembly he publicly urged Saddam to be less merciful, a line replayed as evidence of his mindset. - As Mukhabarat head and later Secretary General of the Northern Bureau, he responded to the Dujail assassination attempt with mass reprisals: killings, deportations, and razing. - In March 1987 he signed an administrative decree authorizing forces to kill “any human being or animal” in designated areas, a phrase that prerequired mass violence and preceded chemical attacks.

A spymaster must move the last Emperor across Yingkou's freezing waters before the ice closes - can he beat the deadline? The Yingkou ice froze his deadline - and Puyi boarded in weeks In this episode, we follow the narrow window that forced a series of bold decisions in Manchuria and trace the tactics used to meet a geological deadline. What choices did Kenji Doihara make in the weeks before November 16, 1931, and at what cost? Person: Kenji Doihara Date: November 16, 1931 (Yingkou freeze deadline) Location: Tianjin; Mukden; Yingkou; Manchuria Event: Evacuation and transport of Puyi before port freeze Period: October-November 1931 - Doihara resigned as provisional mayor of Mukden and left by train for Tianjin with only sixteen days to act. - Yingkou’s port froze every November, creating an unmovable deadline for moving people and materials by ship. - Puyi lived in the Japanese concession in Tianjin, vulnerable and sought after for legitimacy. - Doihara built a decades-long intelligence network fed by opium and dependent informants across Beijing and Manchuria. - His method relied on creating dependency: supplying what key figures lacked so they would cooperate rather than resist.

A wartime courier-turned-spy parachutes into England to test if a fellow agent betrayed the Abwehr - but did a slipped knot change everything? The knot slipped up under his nose and stretched the hanging to seventeen minutes In this episode, we follow the life and mission of Karel Richard Richter from his Bohemian childhood to the night he was dropped into England with a single task: verify whether Wulf Schmidt had defected. We trace his crossings, arrests, recruitment by the Abwehr, and the precarious mission that sent him behind enemy lines - and ask how a man this resourceful ended up facing a fate determined by one small mechanical failure. Person: Karel Richard Richter Date of birth: 29 January 1912 Event: Parachute drop into England as agent "LEONHARD" File: KV 2/30 and KV 2/31 at the UK National Archives - Born in Kraslice, Bohemia, Richter apprenticed in auto mechanics, ran a short-lived car-rental business, and crossed the Hamburg-New York route thirteen times as an engineer. - In 1939 he returned to Europe, attempted alternate routes to America, was interned in Sweden for eight months, then deported to Germany where the Gestapo sent him to Fuhlsbüttel. - In November 1940 the Abwehr recruited Richter; their file records neither coercion nor consent, leaving his enlistment ambiguous. - Trained in Hamburg and The Hague, Richter received the assignment to locate Wulf Schmidt (code name LEONHARD’s target) and determine if the British had turned him. - Deployed in December 1941, Richter arrived in a parachute harness over England carrying a mission predicated on subtle behavioral signals - and the execution method meant to be quick failed due to a slipped knot.

A private runs toward the scaffold in Lucknow after drawing the ace of spades-what happens when military justice meets memory? The booted kick that sent him up the scaffold and into oblivion In this episode, we follow the steps that led Private George Flaxman from a hospital transfer in Ranikhet to a parade ground in Lucknow where he faced execution. We trace the card, the missing motives, and the army’s silence to ask how an institution chooses which men to remember and which to bury in official forgetfulness. Person: Private George Flaxman Date: January 10, 1887 (execution), September 9, 1886 (approximate murder) Location: Lucknow parade ground; Ranikhet hill station Unit: 2nd Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment (with 1st Battalion presence in Ranikhet) Commander: General Sir Frederick Roberts - Flaxman ran up the wooden steps of the Lucknow maidan at 8:15 a.m., boot striking earth once, twice, before the rope took effect. - Three soldiers drew cards in Ranikhet; the ace of spades fell to Flaxman and the pact designated the drawer as the actor. - Flaxman had a Band C conduct rating, no prior disciplinary entries, and was receiving a good-conduct bonus the month he was hanged. - Lance Sergeant William Carmody died in his tent in Ranikhet on or around September 9, 1886; no surviving document explains the motive for his killing. - A single anonymous eyewitness account, hidden for 65 years before surfacing in 1952, preserves the detail of the boots and the act the army would later expunge.

A brilliant general stands at the Johor Strait with Singapore in sight and an army nearly out of ammunition; how do you win when your shells are gone? The missing ammunition that made his army run out of shells and lose Singapore In this episode, we follow Tomoyuki Yamashita from his rural origins to the brink of conquest as he races down the Malay Peninsula toward Singapore. The episode covers his rise through the Imperial Japanese Army, his strict orders to troops, and the critical supply crisis that forced a fateful decision-what could he do when artillery shells ran out? Person: Tomoyuki Yamashita Date: 23 February 1946 Location: Johor Strait / Singapore (campaign); Osugi, Kōchi Prefecture (birthplace) Event: Malayan campaign, December 1941-February 1942 Order: "no looting, no rape, no arson" and personal responsibility for superiors - Born in Osugi, Kōchi Prefecture on 8 November 1885, Yamashita rose rapidly through the Imperial Japanese Army academies. - He served as a military attaché in Bern and Berlin, read Clausewitz in German, and gained a reputation as a strategic thinker. - In November 1941 he received command of the Twenty-Fifth Army with orders to take the Malay Peninsula despite being outnumbered. - His columns used simultaneous coastal and jungle advances, rapid bridge repairs, and alternate crossings to cover nearly 700 miles in 54 days. - By early February 1942 his forces stood opposite Singapore but had only enough artillery shells for roughly one more major push.

A German general orders civilians killed; a trial in Belgrade now asks: can justice make sense of it? The fifty-for-one rule that turned battlefield math into five hundred deaths In this episode, we follow the career and command of Hartwig von Ludwiger from Silesia to the courts in Belgrade, tracing how a military ratio-fifty civilians for every soldier killed-was written into policy and applied after eight soldiers died. How did a lifetime inside military institutions turn procedure into execution, and what does a trial reveal about responsibility? Person: Hartwig von Ludwiger Date: 1 April 1947 Event: Sentenced to death by a Yugoslav war crimes tribunal for ordering execution of 500 Serbian civilians Ratio policy: Fifty civilians executed for every soldier lost Military honor: Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross awarded 15 July 1941 - Born 29 June 1895 in Beuthen, Silesia; called up August 1914 as a candidate officer and commissioned July 1915. - Fought at Champagne, Arras, the Somme, Flanders and the Maas; wounded multiple times and awarded the Silver Wound Badge and Iron Cross First Class. - Stayed in the Reichswehr after 1918; promoted steadily through the 1920s and 1930s to command the Third Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment by 1936. - Took command of the 83rd Infantry Regiment on 1 March 1940 for the 46-day French campaign; awarded the Knight's Cross in July 1941 alongside officers Hubert Lanz and Harald von Hirschfeld. - The division later moved east and back to occupied France as a Jäger formation before returning to operations that led to the application of the fifty-for-one reprisal policy.

A founding fascist, once Mussolini’s right hand, casts a single council vote the regime calls treason-how does he fall from that high? The vote De Bono raised that toppled his own fascist career In this episode, we trace the life and choices of Emilio De Bono from his early military service through his rise inside the Fascist state and the single ballot that led to his condemnation. We follow his career, positions, and the moments that made his vote imaginable - and ask what loyalty and calculation produced that fateful decision. Person: Emilio De Bono Date: January 11, 1944 Location: Verona Event: Council vote to remove Mussolini (cast eighteen months before execution) Position: Quadrumvir; Governor of Tripolitania; Chief of Police; Commander of the Fascist Militia - Born March 19, 1866, De Bono rose from a Lombardy noble family to enlist in the Regio Esercito at eighteen and built a career on strict loyalty to hierarchy. - He fought in the First Italo-Ethiopian War, the Italo-Turkish War, and commanded forces in World War I, earning three Silver Medals for Military Valor. - As one of the four Quadrumvirs, De Bono helped organize the March on Rome in October 1922 and received top Fascist posts including Governor of Tripolitania. - His governorship in Libya oversaw counterinsurgency measures described in the record as including poison gas and concentration camps with tens of thousands of civilian deaths. - Eighteen months before his execution in Verona, De Bono raised his hand in a council chamber to vote to remove Mussolini - a decision the regime labeled treason.

A Polish officer walks into Auschwitz with a dead man’s papers to build resistance - how do you fall from that high? The borrowed papers that sent Witold Pilecki into Auschwitz and exile In this episode, we follow the decisions, loyalties, and calculations that drove Witold Pilecki to volunteer for an impossible mission and the campaigns he led afterward. What does it take to choose a path that makes you indispensable-and then expendable? Person: Witold Pilecki Event: Voluntary entry into Auschwitz using Tomasz Serafiński's papers Date: Night of 21-22 September 1940 (arrival at Auschwitz) Organization: Secret Polish Army (TAP) Location: Warsaw, later Auschwitz - He co-founded and ran the Secret Polish Army (TAP) in occupied Warsaw while using a cosmetics storehouse cover. - He refused an ultranationalist oath inside TAP, appealed to Colonel Stefan Rowecki, and split from Major Jan Włodarkiewicz’s direction. - Believing he was proposed for Auschwitz as punishment, he nonetheless accepted and prepared every detail of his own arrest. - On the night of 19 September 1940 he walked into a German roundup carrying the identity papers of Tomasz Serafiński to be taken to Auschwitz. - Within hours of arrival a guard tattooed number 4859 on his forearm, beginning a campaign of intelligence, organization, and survival inside the camp.

A submarine commander orders his crew to destroy wreckage after sinking a merchant ship - how do you fall from that high? The unburned logbook that tipped a captain from ambition to firing squad In this episode, we follow the chain of decisions aboard U-852 that led from a single wartime patrol to a courtroom question about responsibility. We track the captain’s rise, the tactical context of the Battle of the Atlantic, and the moments on deck that forced men to choose between orders and conscience. Person: Heinz-Wilhelm Eck Event: Sinking of SS Peleus and subsequent destruction of wreckage Date: 13 March 1944 Location: Waters off South Africa / Indian Ocean Case: U-852 logbook and trial related to actions after the Peleus sinking - Eck, a career Kriegsmarine officer promoted to Kapitänleutnant in December 1941, took command of U-852 in June 1943 and left on patrol 18 January 1944. - By early 1944 Allied air reconnaissance tracked submarines via debris fields from sunk ships, changing U-boat tactical calculus and prompting longer routes to the Indian Ocean. - On 13 March 1944 U-852 fired two torpedoes into the unescorted Greek merchant SS Peleus; the ship sank and left a visible debris field. - Eck judged the wreckage would enable Allied aircraft to vector surface hunters to U-852’s position and ordered the crew to destroy the debris, a process that lasted about five hours. - Only men on deck carried out the shooting with grenades, deck gun and small arms; crew members like Lenz later recorded protests or moral qualms about participating.

A field marshal in Berlin had troops ready to stop Hitler-then Chamberlain’s Munich deal handed the Sudetenland and froze the coup. Chamberlain's plane handed Hitler the Sudetenland and stopped the coup In this episode, we follow the years and choices that led a respected German field marshal to risk everything in a plot to prevent Hitler’s war. How did routine promotions, secret conspiracies, and one diplomatic flight collapse the chance to act? Person: Erwin von Witzleben Date: 29 September 1938 Location: Berlin; Sudetenland; Munich Event: Sudetenland crisis and aborted coup Group: Conspiracy including Ludwig Beck, Hans Oster, Erich Hoepner, Karl‑Heinrich von Stülpnagel, Wilhelm Canaris - Born 4 December 1881 in Breslau, Witzleben rose through Prussian military academies and WWI service to become a senior Wehrmacht commander. - He believed the honor of the institution outweighed any individual order, a conviction that put him at odds with Nazi brutality after the Night of the Long Knives. - By 1937 he joined a military conspiracy and was designated the pivot in Berlin whose troops would seize power if Hitler moved toward war. - In September 1938 his Berlin defense district forces were positioned and the coup mechanism was primed to act if Western powers resisted Hitler’s demands. - Neville Chamberlain’s flight to Munich and the 29 September agreement handed Hitler the Sudetenland and removed the trigger the conspirators had been waiting for.