Save the Last Round ...

The Last Stand of the 44th Regiment at Gundamuck, 1842.
William Barnes Wollen
Source

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,

And the women come out to cut up what remains,

Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains 

       An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.

              Go, go, go like a soldier,

              Go, go, go like a soldier,

              Go, go, go like a soldier,

                  So-oldier of the Queen!

Excerpt from "The Young British Soldier" by Rudyard Kipling (Source)

As the Allies advanced into Germany during the final days of World War II, they found many instances where Nazi officials, dressed in their full regalia, had killed themselves. Their wives had also killed themselves. Often their children were killed as well, the younger ones by their parents. These Nazis did not wish to live, apparently, in a world without Hitler. (Or perhaps they didn't wish to face the punishment awaiting them for crimes against humanity.)

In Japan's warrior culture, defeat was not something to countenance. Ritual suicide was accepted as an honorable way to atone for defeat or disgrace. It was also commonly understood as a way to avoid capture and possible torture at the hands of an enemy.

In World War II it was not uncommon for the entire garrison of a Japanese-held island to die rather than surrender. At Tarawa, of a garrison of 4,836 (2,200 of whom were construction laborers - 1,200 Korean and 1,000 Japanese), 4,690 perished. Of the soldiers only 17 were captured, of the construction laborers only 129 Koreans were captured. (It is worth noting that Korea was considered part of Japan during WWII and had been so since 1910.)

The fear of falling into the hands of a particularly brutal enemy has probably been a factor in warfare since its earliest days. Early wars, I surmise, were fought to take things from others, whether it be land, captives, or property, having survivors from the defeated people hanging around after the dust settled was not a great idea. Revenge ya know.

Useful survivors could be sold off, or kept, as slaves, to be disposed of when they were no longer useful. Everyone else was probably killed on the spot. In some of the more brutal cultures, torture often preceded the death of a captive.

In researching yesterday's post, I came across an interesting video (here, it's long - roughly 30 minutes - so I won't reproduce it in this post, you can go there and watch it) which asked the question, "Did Custer commit suicide at the Battle of the Little Bighorn?"

The video also recounts a few other instances of cavalry troopers killing themselves rather than fall into the hands of their enemy. There was good reason for that, many of those who were captured were killed in particularly brutal fashion. The troopers were aware of this and wanted to avoid such a fate, if they could.

I've often wondered what would drive a man to end his own life. In the past many have chosen that way, when they felt that there was no hope, no chance of anything getting better. In wartime it often goes down that way. Surrounded, no hope of relief, the possibility of a slow and painful death at the ends of a brutal and vengeful enemy, why not save that last round for yourself?

Did George Armstrong Custer put his own pistol to his head and pull the trigger as his men died around him on that day in 1876? I don't know, I wasn't there, but it seems plausible.

We may never know.