Sailors.

This is coolbert:

Military execution 22 September 1945. Harold Pringle. Canadian deserter and black marketeer criminal.

From the Internet website "Executed Today".

"The only Canadian soldier to be executed during (… actually well after!) World War II, Harold Pringle, caught a fusillade in Italy on this date in 1945."

"A 16-year-old — he fibbed about his age — enlistee from small-town Ontario, Pringle joined the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment."

"Pringle and a mate in the Hasty P’s name of 'Lucky' MacGillivray linked up with some British deserters to form a black market outfit in conquered Rome. The 'Sailor Gang' enjoyed several weeks of picaresque living in the lawless city. Unsurprisingly, as Allied military authorities got control of the place they were eager to make examples of these minor gangsters.''

"picaresque - - of or relating to rogues or rascals. also : of, relating to, suggesting, or being a type of fiction dealing with the episodic adventures of a usually roguish protagonist"

RASCALS NOT ONLY DESERTING IN THE FACE OF THE ENEMY BUT ENGAGING IN CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR AS WELL. THAT COMBINATION IS WHAT GOT HAROLD THE FIRING SQUAD. HARDLY FICTION.

coolbert.