Escaping the Front: Desertion, Dissembling, and Defection
Escaping the Front: Desertion, Dissembling, and Defection
This chapter examines serious breaches of discipline in both Nationalist and Republican armies. These threatened their systems of recruitment and their capacity to retain conscripted men within the armed forces. It examines the motivation behind decisions to defect and desert, and also looks at the opportunities outwardly to conform to mobilization, while simultaneously procuring the safest possible posting within both armies. The chapter also focuses on both sides’ attempts to limit the number of men avoiding military service, including via self-mutilation, and examines the measures for ‘recycling’ deserters and prisoners of war. These men were monitored and, if their conduct and background checks allowed it, they were enlisted to fight in their captors’ army. While this was practiced by both sides, it was particularly important for the Nationalists because they captured more enemy soldiers than the Republic.
Keywords: desertion, defection, self-mutilation, indiscipline, avoiding military service, recycling, prisoners of war
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