Penal military units, including penal

battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions ...

s, penal

companies A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared go ...

, etc., are military formations consisting of

convict A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as " prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former conv ...

s mobilized for

military service Military service is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, air forces, and naval forces, whether as a chosen job ( volunteer) or as a result of an involuntary draft (conscription). Some nations (e.g., Mexico) require ...

. Such formations may contain soldiers convicted of offenses under

military law Military justice (also military law) is the legal system (bodies of law and procedure) that governs the conduct of the active-duty personnel of the armed forces of a country. In some nation-states, civil law and military law are distinct bodie ...

, persons enrolled in the unit after being convicted in civilian courts, or some combination of the two. Service in such units is typically considered a form of punishment or discipline in lieu of

imprisonment Imprisonment is the restraint of a person's liberty, for any cause whatsoever, whether by authority of the government, or by a person acting without such authority. In the latter case it is " false imprisonment". Imprisonment does not necessar ...

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

History

One of the earliest examples of penal military units was recorded in the Chinese annals ''

Records of the Grand Historian ''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of China that is the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. The ''Records'' was written in the early 1st century by the ancient Chinese his ...

'' and ''

Book of Han The ''Book of Han'' or ''History of the Former Han'' (Qián Hàn Shū,《前汉书》) is a history of China finished in 111AD, covering the Western, or Former Han dynasty from the first emperor in 206 BCE to the fall of Wang Mang in 23 CE. ...

''. During the Han–Dayuan War, unhappy with the failure of General Li Guangli in an earlier expedition in 104 BC,

Emperor Wu of Han Emperor Wu of Han (156 – 29 March 87BC), formally enshrined as Emperor Wu the Filial (), born Liu Che (劉徹) and courtesy name Tong (通), was the seventh emperor of the Han dynasty of ancient China, ruling from 141 to 87 BC. His reign last ...

promised amnesty and rewards to criminals, prisoners and bandits (赦囚徒捍寇盜) and dispatched a 60,000-strong army consisting of "bad boys" (惡少年) to attack the

Greco-Bactrian kingdom The Bactrian Kingdom, known to historians as the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom or simply Greco-Bactria, was a Hellenistic-era Greek state, and along with the Indo-Greek Kingdom, the easternmost part of the Hellenistic world in Central Asia and the Ind ...

Dayuan Dayuan (or Tayuan; ; Middle Chinese ''dâiC-jwɐn'' <

LHC

: ''dɑh-ʔyɑn'') is the Chinese

Napoleonic Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...

era of warfare, as large armies formed of

conscripts Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day und ...

often suffered from disciplinary problems. Soldiers who refused to face the enemy were seen as detrimental to the cohesion of the army and as a disgrace to the nation. The formation of penal battalions was seen as a way of disciplining an army and keeping soldiers in line. In addition, many nations conscripted criminals into penal battalions in lieu of imprisoning or executing them during wartime to better utilize national manpower. Such military units were treated with little regard by the regular army and were often placed in compromising situations, such as being used in

forlorn hope A forlorn hope is a band of soldiers or other combatants chosen to take the vanguard in a military operation, such as a suicidal assault through the kill zone of a defended position, or the first men to climb a scaling ladder against a defen ...

assaults. The French Empire in particular was notable for employing penal military units during the wars of the coalition, especially during the later years of the conflicts as manpower became limited. The ''Régiment pénal de l'Île de Ré'', formed in 1811 and composed almost entirely of criminals and other societal undesirables, would see action during the later years of the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fre ...

. The disbandment of conscripted armies and end of large scale warfare following the Napoleonic era led to the decline of the penal battalion system in continental Europe. However, the system continued in overseas colonies, again with the French as the primary employers of penal battalions. The

Battalions of Light Infantry of Africa The Battalions of Light Infantry of Africa ( French: ''Bataillons d'Infanterie Légère d'Afrique'' or BILA), better known under the acronym ''Bat' d'Af, were French infantry and construction units, serving in Northern Africa, made up of men with ...

(''Bats d'Af'') was formed by order of

Louis Philippe I Louis Philippe (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850) was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, and the penultimate monarch of France. As Louis Philippe, Duke of Chartres, he distinguished himself commanding troops during the Revolutionary Wa ...

in 1832 for the purpose of expanding the

French colonial empire The French colonial empire () comprised the overseas colonies, protectorates and mandate territories that came under French rule from the 16th century onward. A distinction is generally made between the "First French Colonial Empire", that exist ...

. The Battalion fought in the

French conquest of Algeria The French invasion of Algeria (; ) took place between 1830 and 1903. In 1827, an argument between Hussein Dey, the ruler of the Deylik of Algiers, and the French consul escalated into a blockade, following which the July Monarchy of France inva ...

and during the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the ...

. The French also employed the ''compagnies d'exclus'' ("companies of the excluded"), military units which were stationed at Aîn-Sefra in Southern Algeria. These penal units consisted of convicts condemned to five years or more of hard labor and were judged unworthy to carry weapons. The various

Italian unification The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...

conflicts saw the Redshirts recruiting convicts and revolutionaries from prisons into penal regiments known as ''Battaglioni degli imprigionati'' ("Battalions of the Imprisoned" or "Prisoners Battalion".) The period of military rearmament preceding

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

caused renewed interest in the concept of penal military units. In May 1935 the German

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...

instituted a new policy under German conscription law that stated soldiers who were deemed disruptive to military discipline but were otherwise "worthy of service" would be sent to military penal units. Criminals were also conscripted into penal units in exchange for lighter sentences or as a form of

stay of execution A stay of execution is a court order to temporarily suspend the execution of a court judgment or other court order. The word "execution" does not always mean the death penalty. It refers to the imposition of whatever judgment is being stayed and i ...

. These units, referred to as "special departments" or the generic term ''

Strafbataillon ''Strafbataillon'' (English: "penal battalion") is the generic term for penal units that were created from prisoners during the Second World War in all branches of the ''Wehrmacht''. Soldiers, criminals and civilians sentenced to those units we ...

'', were overseen by the German military police. Prior to World War II, there were nine ''Strafbataillone'' within the Wehrmacht. The primary role of a ''Strafbataillon'' was to provide front line support. As the war progressed, the size of ''Strafbataillon'' companies dramatically increased in size due to changes in German military policy. Under such policies, any soldier who had a death sentence (for retreat) commuted was automatically reassigned to penal units, greatly increasing the number of soldiers available to the ''Strafbataillon''. The effectiveness of ''Strafbataillone'' were mixed. The combination of criminals, political prisoners, and undisciplined soldiers that made up a ''Strafbataillon'' often required harsh measures to be imposed for unit cohesion to be maintained. ''Strafbataillone'' were often ordered to undertake high risk missions on the front line, with soldiers being coached to regain their lost honor by fighting. Certain penal military units, such as the

36th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS , image = File:Dirlewanger Crossed Grenades symbol.svg , image_size = 180 , caption = Symbol of the Division , dates = 1940–45 , country ...

, gained a reputation as being brutal towards civilian populations and

prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...

, and were employed as anti-partisan troops due to the fear they inspired. Other units, most notably the 999th Light Afrika Division, suffered from poor morale and saw soldiers desert the Wehrmacht to join resistance groups. Following

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named afte ...

and the entry of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

into World War II, the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

began to seriously consider the implementation of penal military units. These efforts resulted in the creation of ''

Shtrafbat ''Shtrafbats'' (russian: штрафбат, ) were Soviet penal battalions that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II. The ''shtrafbats'' were greatly increased in number by Joseph Stalin in July 1942 via Order No. 227 (Директив� ...

'', penal military units composed of sentenced soldiers, political prisoners, and others deemed to be expendable. A large number of Red Army soldiers who retreated without orders during the initial German invasion were reorganized into rudimentary penal units, the precursors to dedicated ''Shtrafbat''. The ''Shtrafbat'' were greatly increased in number by

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet Union, Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as Ge ...

in July 1942 via

Order No. 227 Order No. 227 () was an order issued on 28 July 1942 by Joseph Stalin, who was acting as the People's Commissar of Defence. It is known for its line "Not a step back!" (, ''Ni shagu nazad!''), which became the primary slogan of the Soviet press ...

(Директива Ставки ВГК №227). Order No. 227 was a desperate effort to re-instill discipline after the panicked routs of the first year of combat with Germany. The order—popularized as the "Not one step back!" (Ни шагу назад!, Ni Shagu Nazad!) Order—introduced severe punishments, including

summary execution A summary execution is an execution in which a person is accused of a crime and immediately killed without the benefit of a full and fair trial. Executions as the result of summary justice (such as a drumhead court-martial) are sometimes includ ...

, for unauthorized retreats. During the

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on main ...

(the part from 1945 to 1949) the

National Revolutionary Army The National Revolutionary Army (NRA; ), sometimes shortened to Revolutionary Army () before 1928, and as National Army () after 1928, was the military arm of the Kuomintang (KMT, or the Chinese Nationalist Party) from 1925 until 1947 in China ...

(NRA) was known to have used penal battalions. A unit made up of deserters and those accused of cowardice, the penal battalion was given tasks such as scouting ahead of the main forces to check for ambushes, crossing rivers and torrents to see whether they were fordable, and walking across unmapped minefields.

By country

Belgium

* Woodchopping platoon of the Orne Penal unit for

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

soldiers acting against the French speaking superiors in the

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

army during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

.Geert Herman, Nieuwsblad, 7 juli 2014, article in Dutch
/ref>Peter Verplancke, VRT, 15 juli 2018, article in Dutch
/ref>Tom Simoens, CHTP-BEG - n° 23 / 2011, article in Dutc
Van arrangeren tot renseigneren. Smaad en geweld Van militairen Tegen hun oversten tijdens de eerste wereldoorlog

Bolivia

* 50th Infantry Regiment (Bolivia) personnel were recruited from prisons and under command from army and police officers in the

Chaco war The Chaco War ( es, link=no, Guerra del Chaco, gn, Cháko ÑorairõErillinen Pataljoona 21 ("Separate Battalion 21") or "Pärmi's Devils" was a penal battalion that fought in the Finnish army during the Continuation War, and was commanded by Major Nikke Pärmi. Er.P 21 was founded in August 1941 from voluntary criminal prisoners, and it also included leftists who were in protective custody. The distinguishing mark of Er.P 21 was the black letter V sewn into the sleeve of the uniform, according to which the unit was nicknamed "Black Arrow".

France

* Régiment pénal de l'Île de Ré, formed in 1811, disbanded in 1814. This was one of five regional penal units forming part of the French Army during this period and disbanded at the

First Restoration The First Restoration was a period in French history that saw the return of the Bourbon dynasty to the throne, between the abdication of Napoleon I in the spring of 1814 and the Hundred Days, in March 1815. The regime was born following the vict ...

. * Battalion of Light Infantry of Africa formed in 1832 and made up of men with prison records who still had to complete their military service, plus serving soldiers with serious disciplinary problems. *

Disciplinary Company of the Foreign Regiments in the Far East The Disciplinary Company of the Foreign Regiments in the Far East (french: Compagnie disciplinaire en Extrême-Orient, CDRE/EO) created on June 1, 1946, was the disciplinary company for serious French Foreign Legion offenders in the Far East. It w ...

(1946–1954)

Italy

* Cacciatori franchi of '' Regio Esercito'' * Battaglione di rigore of ''Genio Lavoratori'' (

Italian Social Republic The Italian Social Republic ( it, Repubblica Sociale Italiana, ; RSI), known as the National Republican State of Italy ( it, Stato Nazionale Repubblicano d'Italia, SNRI) prior to December 1943 but more popularly known as the Republic of Salò ...

) * Battaglioni degli imprigionati

Nazi Germany

* Afrika-Brigade 999 (a.k.a. Bewährungseinheiten 999, Strafbataillon 999, Bewährungstruppe 999, Division 999). *

Dirlewanger Brigade , image = File:Dirlewanger Crossed Grenades symbol.svg , image_size = 180 , caption = Symbol of the Division , dates = 1940–45 , country ...

(a.k.a. SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger, later 36th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS). Consisting of hardened criminals who were not expected to survive recruitment, it became notorious even among the Waffen-SS for the sheer depravity of its war crimes. *

Strafbattalion ''Strafbataillon'' (English: "penal battalion") is the generic term for penal units that were created from prisoners during the Second World War in all branches of the '' Wehrmacht''. Soldiers, criminals and civilians sentenced to those units we ...

(

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 ''Luftwaf ...

unit)

Russia

* In July 2022 during the

Russian Invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

, the Wagner Group attempted to recruit inmates to fight in Ukraine.

South Korea

Unit 684 209th Detachment, 2325th Group ( ko, 2325부대 209파견대), commonly known as Unit 684 (684부대), was a black operations unit of the Republic of Korea Air Force formed to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Il-sung in 1968, in retaliation fo ...

of the Republic of Korea Air Force formed from convicts to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Il-sung in 1968.

Soviet Union

(

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

prisoner battalions in

)

Ukraine

* In February 2022 during the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...

offered to release prisoners with combat experience if they will fight in the army.

Notes

References

*Conquest, Robert, ''Kolyma: The Arctic Death Camps'', Methuen Press, (1978) *Hatch, Gardner N., ''American Ex-prisoners of War: Non Solum Armis,'' Turner Publishing Company, (1988), *Krivosheev, G.F. ''Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses in the twentieth century'', London, Greenhill Books, 1997, , available online (in Russian

*Lebed, Alexander (Gen.), ''My Life and My Country'', Regnery Publishing, Inc. (1997) *Manazeev, Igor, ''A 'Penal' Corps on the Kalinin Front'', Journal of Slavic Military Studies, Vol. 15, Issue 3, September 2002 *Mawdsley, Evan, ''The Stalin Years: The Soviet Union 1929-1953'', Manchester University Press (2003), *Suvorov, Viktor, ''Inside The Soviet Army'', Hamish Hamilton (1982), *Tolstoy, Nikolai, ''Stalin's Secret War'', New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston (1981), *Toppe, Alfred, ''Night Combat'', Diane Publishing (1998), *Lynch, Dr Michael, ''The Chinese Civil War 1945–49: Modern Warfare (Guide To... Book 61)'' Osprey Publishing (2010),

External links

Yefim Golbraikh memoirs, including his serving commander of a penal company
{{in lang, ru

on Penal Units from

Voice of Russia Voice of Russia ( rus, Голос России, r=Golos Rossii), commonly abbreviated VOR, was the Russian government's international radio broadcasting service from 1993 until 2014, when it was reorganised as Radio Sputnik. Its interval signal ...

Law of war Penal units