The Fifth Field: The Story of the 96 American Soldiers Sentenced to Death and Executed in Europe and North Africa in World War II

AuthorReviewed by Fred L. Borch III
Pages285-291
2014] BOOK REVIEWS 285
THE FIFTH FIELD: THE STORY OF THE 96 AMERICAN
SOLDIERS SENTENCED TO DEATH AND EXECUTED IN
EUROPE AND NORTH AFRICA IN WORLD WAR II1
REVIEWED BY FRED L. BORCH III*
Between March 1943 and October 1945, the Army hanged (or shot
by firing squad) ninety-six soldiers who had been tried by courts-martial
and condemned to death. The Fifth Field is about those trials—who,
what, why, when, where and how—and will be of great interest to all
judge advocates because no other book has previously analyzed, much
less examined, the records of trial in death penalty courts-martial
conducted during World War II.
Author French L. MacLean, who delivered the George S. Prugh
Lecture in Military Legal History on this topic in April 2013, deserves
special praise for researching and writing this unique study in military
legal history. As a retired Infantry colonel with first-hand experience
with courts-martial (MacLean served as a panel member in more than a
few cases), the author also has an insider’s view of the military criminal
legal system that gives him additional credibility when discussing
whether justice was done by these military tribunals.
The Fifth Field begins with a short statistical analysis of the Army’s
use of the death penalty in World War II2 before continuing with a longer
discussion of how the military judicial system operated “in the field”
between 1942 and 1945. The book then examines each of the ninety-six
* Mr. Borch is the Regimental Historian and Archivist for the U.S. Army Judge Advocate
General’s Corps. He graduated from Davidson College (A.B., 1976), from the University
of North Carolina (J.D., 1979), and from the University of Brussels, Belgium (LL.M,
magna cum laude, International and Comparative Law, 1980). Mr. Borch also has
advanced degrees in military law (LL.M, The Judge Advocate General's School, 1988),
National Security Studies (M.A., highest distinction, Naval War College, 2001), and
history (M.A., University of Virginia, 2007). From 2012 to 2013, Mr. Borch was a
Fulbright Scholar in the Netherlands, where he was a Visiting Professor at the University
of Leiden and a Visiting Researcher at the Netherlands Institute of Military History.
Fred Borch is the author of a number of books and articles on legal and non-legal
topics, including Judge Advocates in Combat: Army Lawyers in Military Operations from
Vietnam to Haiti (2001), and Judge Advocates in Vietnam: Army Lawyers in Southeast
Asia (2004). His latest book, Medals for Soldiers and Airmen: Awards and Decorations
of the United States Army and Air Force was published by McFarland Press in 2013.
1 FRENCH L. MACLEAN, THE FIFTH FIELD (2013).
2 Id. 20–22.

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