# In death by Firing Squad, why is one man given a blank Shot? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 5, 2004, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-death-by-firing-squad-why-is-one-man-given-a-blank-shot/253710 "2004-07-05T22:50:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2004, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-death-by-firing-squad-why-is-one-man-given-a-blank-shot/253710/21 "2004-07-06T17:49:54Z")
Again, these do not specifiy treatment of PoWs. What we’re talking about here is methods of executions carried out through a judicial process - which doesn’t have anything to do with the laws of warfare. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2004, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-death-by-firing-squad-why-is-one-man-given-a-blank-shot/253710/22 "2004-07-06T18:48:51Z")
> [@Cicero](#): > > Normally wouldn’t happen on the battlefield- there was still a process that required a court martial (I am talking the British Army- including the Empire as it was). I can’t imagine a cahrge being so serious that it would need immediate execution AND requiring the formation of a firing squad. I wouldn’t know for the british, but amongst the french, the whole process, court-martial included sometimes took less than two days, and the execution would be carried on close to the front line, not in some remote military jail. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2004, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-death-by-firing-squad-why-is-one-man-given-a-blank-shot/253710/23 "2004-07-06T18:57:48Z")
When I think about it, there was normally a turnover, and frontline soldiers were replaced, sent to the second line reserves, and to training (not long away behind the lines) . If they were so trained on a regular basis, I assume that blanks would be available quite easily. ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2004, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-death-by-firing-squad-why-is-one-man-given-a-blank-shot/253710/24 "2004-07-06T20:37:29Z")
> [@](#): > > …Doesn’t a blank have significantly less recoil than a live round? I’ve never fired blanks, but I imagine if anyone was used to a particular weapon, they would realize it if they were… - - - See, I was told this also. A local Old Fart said that his father had explained to him that one soldier was given a blank, but not so that the soldiers would know who didn’t fire the real bullet. They would easily know if they had fired a blank or not, because of the differences in recoil–_but they were not allowed to ever tell anyone else who fired the blank_. The purpose of the blank was to allow plausible deniability of the individual soldiers _by the rest of society_. If an objector to the execution later met one of the soldiers, that objector would have no way of knowing if that soldier really did fire a shot or not. The differences between a live round and a blank are easily _felt_ by the shooter, but -if made properly- not as easily _seen by others_. ~ ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2004, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-death-by-firing-squad-why-is-one-man-given-a-blank-shot/253710/25 "2004-07-06T21:05:57Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > Captured enemy soldiers were simply held as prisoners of war. Espionage, on the other hand, would presumably be tried in a full court (you can’t try an enemy in a court martial), with the usual execution method of hanging applying. > > Once again, this is ignoring summary executions, massacres, etc. Was hanging the usual method? I saw a special on Foxtel a few weeks back where they were displaying a chair stored in the Tower of London which had been used for the execution of a spy who had parachuted into England during WW2. He was bound in the chair and executed by firing squad. That is only one example of course. And Clairobscur, the French may have been different and performed executions in the front lines- they had significant mutinies in the trenches after the wholesale slaughter of Verdun (IIRC) but desertion was not the only crime punishable by execution. Such things as murder could draw the death sentence. Finally, not all executions even took place anywhere near the front lines. There were mutinies in the Territorial armies in Singapore which caused executions, although details of that are rather sketchy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-death-by-firing-squad-why-is-one-man-given-a-blank-shot/253710.md?page=1)