Desertion


Desertion is the abandonment of a military duty or post without permission and is done with the intention of not returning. This contrasts with unauthorized absence or absence without leave, which are temporary forms of absence.

Desertion versus absence without leave

In the United States Army, United States Air Force, British Armed Forces, Australian Defence Force, New Zealand Defence Force, Singapore Armed Forces and Canadian Armed Forces, military personnel will become AWOL if absent from their post without a valid pass, liberty or leave. The United States Marine Corps, United States Navy, and United States Coast Guard generally refer to this as unauthorized absence. Personnel are dropped from their unit rolls after thirty days and then listed as deserters; however, as a matter of U.S. military law, desertion is not measured by time away from the unit, but rather:
  • by leaving or remaining absent from their unit, organization, or place of duty, where there has been a determined intent to not return;
  • if that intent is determined to be to avoid hazardous duty or shirk contractual obligation;
  • if they enlist or accept an appointment in the same or another branch of service without disclosing the fact that they have not been properly separated from current service.
People who are away for more than thirty days but return voluntarily or indicate a credible intent to return may still be considered AWOL. Those who are away for fewer than thirty days but can credibly be shown to have no intent to return may nevertheless be tried for desertion. On rare occasions, they may be tried for treason if enough evidence is found.
There are similar concepts to desertion. Missing movement occurs when a member of the armed forces fails to arrive at the appointed time and place to deploy with their assigned unit, ship, or aircraft. In the United States Armed Forces, this is a violation of the Article 87 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The offense is similar to absence without leave but may draw more severe punishment.
Failure to repair consists of missing a formation or failing to appear at an assigned place and time when so ordered. It is a lesser offense within Article 86 of the UCMJ.
An additional duty status code — absent-unknown, or AUN — was established by the U.S. military in 2020 to prompt unit actions and police investigations during the first 48 hours that a service member is missing.

By country

Australia

During the First World War, the Australian Government refused to allow members of the First Australian Imperial Force 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 British Expeditionary Force, and the proportion of soldiers who deserted was also higher than that of other forces on the Western Front in France.

Austria

In 2011, Vienna decided to honour Austrian Wehrmacht deserters. On 24 October 2014, a Memorial for the Victims of Nazi Military Justice was inaugurated on Vienna's Ballhausplatz by Austria's President Heinz Fischer. The monument was created by German artist Olaf Nicolai and is located opposite the President's office and the Austrian Chancellery. The inscription on top of the three step sculpture features a poem by Scottish poet Ian Hamilton Finlay with just two words: all alone.

Afghanistan

A quarter of ANA and ANSF troops were reported to have deserted in 2009 with many troops hiding in the heat of battle rather than engaging the enemy. Following the fall of Kabul in August 2021, the remaining forces of the ANA either deserted their posts or surrendered to the Taliban.

Canada

During World War I, the Canadian Expeditionary Force passed more than 200 death sentences on deserters. Only 25 men were actually executed.
Per the National Defence Act, "every person who deserts or attempts to desert is guilty of an offence and on conviction, if the person committed the offence on active service or under orders for active service, is liable to imprisonment for life or to less punishment and, in any other case, is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or to less punishment".

Colombia

In Colombia, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia insurgency were highly affected by desertion during the armed conflict with the Military Forces of Colombia. The Colombian Ministry of Defense reported 19,504 deserters from the FARC between August 2002 and their collective demobilization in 2017, despite potentially severe punishment, including execution, for attempted desertion in the FARC. Organizational decline contributed to FARC's high desertion rate which peaked in the year 2008. A later stalemate between the FARC and government forces gave rise to the Colombian peace process.

France

Many individuals who were conscripted by the French First Republic during the French Revolutionary Wars deserted. There were rough estimates to the number of individuals that deserted during the time of the levée en masse, but due to many factors, like the inability to manage and keep track of all the armies or differentiating between men with similar names, the exact number is unclear. In 1800, the Minister of War reported that there were 175,000 deserters based on the number of individuals that sought the benefits following the amnesty put in place.
From 1914 to 1918 between 600 and 650 French soldiers were executed for desertion. In 2013, a report for the French Ministry of Veteran Affairs recommended that they be pardoned.
Conversely, France considered as highly praiseworthy the act of citizens of Alsace-Lorraine who during WWI deserted from the German army. After the war it was decided to award all such deserters the Escapees' Medal.
During the First Indochina War, the French Foreign Legion was deployed to fight the Vietnamese insurgency. Some of the legionnaires, such as Stefan Kubiak, deserted and began fighting for the Việt Minh and People's Army of Vietnam upon witnessing torture of Vietnamese peasants at the hands of French troops.

Germany

During the First World War, only 18 Germans who deserted were executed. However, the Germans executed 15,000 men who deserted from the Wehrmacht during the Second World War. In June 1988 the Initiative for the Creation of a Memorial to Deserters who deserted the Wehrmacht came to life in Ulm.

Ireland

Ireland was neutral during the Second World War; the Irish Army expanded to 40,000 men, but they had little to do once it became clear in 1942 that invasion was unlikely. Soldiers were put to work cutting trees and peat; morale was low and pay was bad. Of the 60,000 men who passed through the army in 1940–45, about 7,000 men deserted, about half of them deciding to fight on the Allied side, most joining the British Army.
Once the war was over, the EPO 362 order meant deserters were allowed to return to Ireland; they were not imprisoned, but lost rights to an army pension and could not work for the state or claim unemployment benefits for seven years. They were also seen as traitors by some Irish people in their homes.
Decades after, the morality of their actions was debated; on the one hand, they had illegally abandoned their country's armed forces at a time when it was threatened with invasion — indeed, it was argued that their acts were treasonous at a time when Britain may have been planning to seize control of Ireland's ports ; on the other hand, they chose to leave a safe if tedious posting in order to risk their lives fighting against fascism, and many were motivated by genuine idealism.
In 2012, the Minister for Justice and Equality Alan Shatter issued a pardon and amnesty to all World War II–era deserters from the Irish Defence Forces.

Italy

During World War I, 15,096 Italians served life sentences and around 750 were executed for deserting from the military; the Roman punishment of decimation was claimed to have been used. In 1918, Italy agreed to pardon all deserters, who, after their conscription in their military, joined the United States Army, affecting thousands. In total, about 128,000 desertion cases took place due to the First World War in Italy. In Italy during the Napoleonic Wars, about 40,000 soldiers deserted from the military, with Italy's Ministry of War of the Kingdom, describing desertion as a "destructive worm". To halt desertion, in 1808, the Italian government created the consigli di guerra speciali, a group of military courts.

New Zealand

During the First World War, 28 New Zealand soldiers were sentenced to death for desertion; of these, five were executed. These soldiers were posthumously pardoned in 2000 through the Pardon for Soldiers of the Great War Act. Those who deserted before reaching the front were imprisoned in what were claimed to be harsh conditions.

Rhodesia

The Rhodesian government did not have a formal mechanism to track down men who did not report for the national service and conscription scheme. While desertion could be punished by death, this was not enforced. Most Rhodesian Security Forces officers were not concerned about men in their units evading call ups or deserting. As late as 1977 the Army did not keep records of men who deserted. The heavy burden conscription placed on the white minority during the final years of the Rhodesian Bush War led to many white people emigrating. This undermined the Rhodesian government's war effort and contributed to the transition to majority rule, with the country becoming Zimbabwe in 1980.

Russia

During the 2022 Russian mobilization, the Putin-controlled State Duma of Russia adopted amendments to include the concepts of mobilization, martial law and wartime in the Criminal Code, and introduced several articles related to military operations. Desertion during a period of mobilization or wartime will be punished by up to 10 years in jail. In December 2022, Kazakhstan deported back to Russia a Russian officer who was trying to avoid the Russo-Ukrainian war.
Russian independent media outlet Mediazona reported that military courts have received thousands of AWOL cases since Russia's 2022 mobilization. Pro Asyl estimated that 250,000 Russian conscripts have fled to other countries since February 2022. As of 2024, France was the only EU country accepting Russian deserters without a passport and allowing them to apply for asylum. There is a distinction however between potential conscripts who could be conscripted if they stayed in Russia and active duty contract soldiers and officers who desert from the war.
According to leaked Russian documents, more than 50,000 Russian soldiers deserted during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, mostly in 2023 and 2024.