This book describes the men who were executed for crimes committed in
the European Theater of Operations during and just after the Second
World War.
The Oise-Aisne American Cemetery is the last resting place of 6,012
American soldiers who died fighting in a small portion of Northern
France during the First World War. The impressive cemetery is divided
into four plots marked A to D.
However, few visitors are aware that across the road, behind the
immaculate façade of the superintendent's office, unmarked and
completely surrounded by impassable shrubbery, is Plot E, a semi-secret
fifth plot that contains the bodies of ninety-four American soldiers.
These were men who were executed for crimes committed in the European
Theater of Operations during and just after the Second World War.
Originally, the men whose death sentences were carried out were buried
near the sites of their executions in locations as far afield as
England, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, and Algeria. A number of the
men were executed in the grounds of Shepton Mallet prison in Somerset -
the majority of whom were hanged in the execution block, with two being
shot by a firing squad in the prison yard. The executioner at most of
the hangings was Thomas William Pierrepoint, assisted mainly by his
more-famous nephew Albert Pierrepoint.
Then, in 1949, under a veil of secrecy, the 'plot of shame', as it has
become known, was established in France. The site does not exist on maps
of the cemetery and it is not mentioned on the American Battle Monuments
Commission's website. Visits to Plot E are not encouraged. Indeed,
public access is difficult because the area is concealed, surrounded by
bushes, and is closed to visitors.
No US flag is permitted to fly over the plot and the graves themselves
have no names, just small, simple stones the size of index cards that
are differentiated only by reference numbers. Even underground the
dishonored are set apart, with each body being positioned with its back
to the main cemetery.
In The Plot of Shame, the historian Paul Johnson uncovers the history
of Plot E and the terrible stories of wartime crime linked to it.
