MUTINY AT SALERNO 1943: AN INJUSTICE EXPOSED

In late September 1943, nearly two hundred exhausted veterans of Montgomery's Eighth Army were arrested for refusing orders to join units of the US Fifth Army at the Salerno beachhead in southern Italy. Within six weeks, all but one had been found guilty of mutiny, their sentences ranging from five years' penal servitude to death. Fifty years on, Saul David was the first military historian to gain access to the court martial papers. These papers have enabled David to expose how the men were stripped of their medals and branded as cowards. Concluding that the men were victims of a terrible injustice, David provides a compelling case for a Royal Pardon.