Nestled deep in the Surrey countryside stands the Brookwood 1939-1945
Memorial. Maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, its
panels contain the names of nearly 3,500 men and women of the land
forces of Britain and the Commonwealth who died in the Second World War
and who have no known grave.
Among the men and women who names are carved on the memorial are Special
Operations Executive agents who died as prisoners or while working with
Allied underground movements, servicemen killed in the various raids on
enemy occupied territory in Europe, such as Dieppe and Saint-Nazaire,
men and women who died at sea in hospital ships and troop transports,
British Army parachutists, and even pilots and aircrew who lost their
lives in flying accidents or in aerial combat.
But the panels also hide a dark secret. Entwined within the names of
heroes and heroines are those of nineteen men whose last resting place
is known, and whose deaths were less than glorious. All were murderers
who, following a civil or military trial, were executed for the heinous
offense they had committed. The bodies of these individuals, with the
exception of one, lay buried in un-consecrated ground.
As Paul Johnson reveals, the cases of the 'Brookwood Killers' are
violent, disturbing and often brutal in their content. They are not war
crimes, but crimes committed in a time of war, for which the offender
has their name recorded and maintained in perpetuity. Something that is
not always applied in the case of the victim.
