Amid the carnage of the battles of World War I a small number of Welsh soldiers made the fateful decision to abscond from their units: under the Army Act, if found guilty of the offences they were charged with, they could suffer the ultimate penalty, to be shot at dawn. A handful of men serving in Welsh regiments absconded and despite mitigating circumstances and with derisory field trials, usually without representation or a 'soldier's friend' to speak on their behalf they were found guilty and sentenced to death by firing squad. This book documents the cases. In 2006 a motion was put forward to pardon those men, except in cases of murder. This was successful and 305 men, albeit nearly 100 years later, were exonerated.