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A drumhead court-martial is a court-martial held in the field to hear urgent charges of offences committed in action. The term sometimes has connotations of summary justice. The term is said to originate from the use of a drum as an improvised table, the drumhead forming the writing surface.


Origins

The earliest recorded usage is in an English memoir of the Peninsular War (1807). The term sometimes has connotations of summary justice, with an implied lack of judicial impartiality, as noted in the transcripts of the trial at Nuremberg of
Josef Bühler Josef Bühler (16 February 1904 – 22 August 1948) was a state secretary and deputy governor to the Nazi Germany-controlled General Government in Kraków during World War II. Background Bühler was born in Bad Waldsee into a Catholic family ...
. According to Sir Arthur Wynne Morgan Bryant, such courts-martial have ordered lashings or hangings to punish soldiers (and their
officers An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," fr ...
) who were cowardly, disobedient, or, conversely, acted rashly; and especially as a discouragement to
drunkenness Alcohol intoxication, also known as alcohol poisoning, commonly described as drunkenness or inebriation, is the negative behavior and physical effects caused by a recent consumption of alcohol. In addition to the toxicity of ethanol, the main p ...
. It is also used as a reference to a kangaroo court in its derogatory form.


World War II


Nazi Germany

From 1934, every division of the
German Army The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwa ...
had a court martial. After the
occupation of Poland Occupation commonly refers to: *Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment *Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbolic spaces *Military occupation, th ...
, the ''
Oberkommando des Heeres The (; abbreviated OKH) was the high command of the Army of Nazi Germany. It was founded in 1935 as part of Adolf Hitler's rearmament of Germany. OKH was ''de facto'' the most important unit within the German war planning until the defeat at ...
'' wished to introduce a system which allowed speedy trials to be performed, as it was believed that a fast process would be a more effective deterrent. In November 1939 a law was passed which permitted drumhead trials if it was deemed necessary during warfare. Every commander of a regiment could either decide to inform the court martial of his division, or he could convene a drumhead trial when somebody was accused of a crime. The decision of a drumhead trial could be executed immediately. With the beginning of the year 1944 the high command formed a special police, the "High command Feldjägerkorps", which were in command of special drumhead trials named ''fliegende Standgerichte'', composed of motorized judges. During the last two months of World War II,
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...
authorized the use of ''Fliegendes Sonder-Standgericht'' ("flying special court martial" or "flying special drumhead"), mobile courts-martial used by the German armed forces. The use of "flying" refers to their mobility and may also refer to the earlier "flying courts martial" held in
Italian Libya Libya ( it, Libia; ar, ليبيا, Lībyā al-Īṭālīya) was a colony of the Fascist Italy located in North Africa, in what is now modern Libya, between 1934 and 1943. It was formed from the unification of the colonies of Italian Cyrenaica ...
. Italian military judges were flown by aircraft to the location of captured rebels, where the rebels were tried in a court martial shortly after capture. An example of this was the summary trial of five officers found guilty of failing to prevent the Western Allies from capturing the Ludendorff Bridge during the
Battle of Remagen The Battle of Remagen was an 18-day battle during the Allied invasion of Germany in World War II from 7 to 25 March 1945 when American forces unexpectedly captured the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine intact. They were able to hold it against ...
on 7 March 1945. On a direct order from Hitler, ''
Generalleutnant is the Germanic variant of lieutenant general, used in some German speaking countries. Austria Generalleutnant is the second highest general officer rank in the Austrian Armed Forces (''Bundesheer''), roughly equivalent to the NATO rank of O ...
''
Rudolf Hübner __NOTOC__ Rudolf Hübner (29 April 1897 – 28 February 1965) was a German general during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross of Nazi Germany. Hübner entered the Army during the First World War on 25 July 19 ...
tried Major Hans Scheller, Captain Willi Bratge, Lt. Karl Heinz Peters, Maj. Herbert Strobel and Maj. August Kraft. Hübner, who had no legal experience, acted as both prosecutor and judge. He conducted extremely brief show trials during which he harangued the defendants for their alleged command failures, and then pronounced sentence. All of the officers were sentenced to death. Except for Bratge, who had been captured by the enemy, the others were taken to nearby woods within 24 hours, executed with a shot to the back of the neck, and buried where they fell. After the failed plot to assassinate Hitler in July 1944, General
Friedrich Fromm Friedrich Wilhelm Waldemar Fromm (8 October 1888 – 12 March 1945) was a German Army officer. In World War II, Fromm was Commander in Chief of the Replacement Army (''Ersatzheer''), in charge of training and personnel replacement for combat di ...
, after capturing the conspirators, hosted an impromptu court martial sentencing the lead conspirators to death by firing squad.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer Dietrich Bonhoeffer (; 4 February 1906 – 9 April 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and anti-Nazi dissident who was a key founding member of the Confessing Church. His writings on Christianity's role in the secular world hav ...
, accused of association with the assassination plot, was similarly tried and executed. After
Admiral Canaris Wilhelm Franz Canaris (1 January 1887 – 9 April 1945) was a German admiral and the chief of the ''Abwehr'' (the German military-intelligence service) from 1935 to 1944. Canaris was initially a supporter of Adolf Hitler, and the Nazi re ...
, head of the ''
Abwehr The ''Abwehr'' ( German for ''resistance'' or ''defence'', but the word usually means ''counterintelligence'' in a military context; ) was the German military-intelligence service for the ''Reichswehr'' and the '' Wehrmacht'' from 1920 to 1944. ...
'', the German military intelligence service, was suspected of involvement in the
20 July Plot On 20 July 1944, Claus von Stauffenberg and other conspirators attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Führer of Nazi Germany, inside his Wolf's Lair field headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia, now Kętrzyn, in present-day Poland. The ...
to assassinate Hitler, Hitler authorised
Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...
to have Canaris tried and sentenced to death by a drumhead court-martial.


Imperial Japan

The
Enemy Airmen's Act The Enemy Airmen's Act was a law passed by Imperial Japan on 13 August 1942 which stated that Allied airmen participating in bombing raids against Japanese-held territory would be treated as "violators of the law of war" and subject to trial and pu ...
contributed to the deaths of hundreds of Allied airmen throughout WWII in the Pacific Theater. An estimated 132 Allied airmen shot down during the bombing campaign against Japan in 1944–1945 were summarily executed after short kangaroo trials or drumhead courts-martial.


In popular culture

The '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'' episode "
The Drumhead "The Drumhead" is the 95th episode of the first-run syndication, syndicated American science fiction on television, science fiction television series ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'' and the 21st episode of the program's Star Trek: The Next Ge ...
" is focused on a drumhead court-martial. In that episode, the retired
Rear Admiral Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, equivalent to a major general and air vice marshal and above that of a commodore and captain, but below that of a vice admiral. It is regarded as a two star "admiral" rank. It is often regard ...
Norah Satie returns to serve as an investigator, first to investigate possible sabotage, but the investigations scope is quickly expanded to other, unrelated crimes. A major plot device is the use of
Betazoid ''Star Trek'' is a science fiction media franchise that began with Gene Roddenberry's launch of the original ''Star Trek'' television series in 1966. Its success led to decades of films, novels, comics, and spinoff series. A major motif of the ...
telepathy Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic ...
as a sign of guilt, which is not
admissible evidence Admissible evidence, in a court of law, is any testimonial, documentary, or tangible evidence that may be introduced to a factfinder—usually a judge or jury—to establish or to bolster a point put forth by a party to the proceeding. For e ...
under Federation law. Captain Jean-Luc Picard denounces the proceedings, which are explained as resembling a "drumhead court martial", hence the name.


References

{{Authority control Informal legal terminology Court-martial