Topic summary
Absent without leave
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Desertion.
Australia
During the First World War, the Australian Government refused to allow members of the First Australian Imperial Force (AIF) to be executed for desertion, despite pressure from the British Government and military to do so. The AIF had the highest rate of soldiers going absent without leave of any of the national contingents in the , and the proportion of soldiers who deserted was also higher than that of other forces on the Western Front in France.