A Mercy Killing – Captain Robert Semrau

A Canadian court marshal in Petawawa Ontario is about to pronounce judgment on Captain Robert Semrau, an infantry combat officer who is suspected of carrying out a mercy killing of a seriously wounded Afghan enemy insurgent fighter.

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As a WW2 combat veteran of that long ago war I need to comment on this case, not in respect to its details or the ultimate judgment about to be rendered by this court martial but in respect to the an understanding of a combat milieu and why these things may occur. In April 1945 I was a member of an artillery forward observation team working with the Canadian infantry. I was a radio operator. We were part of an attack that wound up in a Dutch farmhouse using the loft for our observation point. Our guns and our accompanying tanks were shelling the Germans about 1000 yards away in a fortified windmill. The infantry had fought their way in and the fight was still going on in the farm yard in back of the farmhouse when we arrived. Shortly after, the Germans pulled out and ran for the windmill and some other slit trenches they had dug as a defense perimeter about three quarters of the way to the windmill. There was a badly wounded German soldier in a slit trench in the farmyard left behind by his comrades who was screaming in pain and crying for help. None of our men or our medic could help him without running a gauntlet of fire. Shortly after, one of our tanks moved up to a hedge of trees that gave some screening for the troops on the side of the farmyard towards the enemy. The tank opened fire. Unfortunately two of our infantrymen dug in near the tank and slightly in front of it were hidden in the hedge. The shell from the tank hit one of the branches of the trees, exploded and killed one of our men and wounded the other. As night fell, the battle slowed off but it was still too hot (dangerous) to move around. The screaming of the wounded German now became more audible. Helf, Helf! – Bitte, Bitte – Mutti Mutti (Help, Help, Please, Please, Mother, Mother he cried and sobbed). It was pitiful and nerve racking. Every man in earshot had his stomach turned and it got worse as the night wore on. However, no officer would give an order to help the man in view of the risks to his own men and also because it could be a trick to lure the men into a trap. I knew the regimental medic’s first name and I knew he wanted to help but he too was not permitted to risk his neck given that he was busy tending the wounds of his comrades and the shooting was still rattling away. The wounded German’s cries continued hour after hour but ever weaker along with groans and screams of anguish. It was soul destroying. Towards dawn, the medic came by and told me he was on his way to help the wounded enemy soldier. I said, “Good but be damn careful.” About a half an hour went by and the cries stopped. Soon the medic reappeared and I asked him if he had been able to help the wounded man. He said, I couldn’t save him but I put him out of his misery and he furtively showed me his bloody knife and the blood- stained binoculars he had taken from the dead soldier. As he left me to report to his officer, I saw several of the infantrymen approach and thank him for ending the man’s misery. They suspected that there was no saving the wounded enemy soldier. I feel comfortable if sad that a mercy killing is sometimes necessary to assist a horribly wounded soldier, enemy or comrade, to die when there is very obviously no possibility of life. We should pray our army does not attempt to punish an officer or other rank in a combat situation that no civilian or non-combat soldier has ever experienced.