Hmmm Teribus, You seem to be cherry picking, as we all do, which bits of Harry Patch's testimony you want to believe.

Firstly you say he had not experienced "shell shock" although today "shell shock" seems to be an accepted "fact" today.

Do you really believe that he never met anyone suffering from "shell shock"?

I would proffer the argument that the term "shell shock" was not acknowledged at the time and that he didn't recognise the term. I seem to recall that "shell shock" was not an accepted diagnosis until quite late in the war.

Secondly in your rather convoluted logic you state "then it becomes impossible by his own statements that he could have "witnessed" the summary execution of a soldier suffering from shell shock by an officer in a trench. He might have heard stories about it but if Harry Patch is telling the truth then he could not possibly have witnessed it"

If he didn't recognise it as a condition he couldn't say he saw it. Being honest I believe

Thirdly, and I'm sure we'll come back to this point, I find this quite bizarre you state "Just a little bit of information for you - neither an Officer or an NCO can so much as strike a Private Soldier because that is an offence under military law" Are you truly expecting us to believe this didn't happen? Do you want to tell us about the floggings of Indian troops?

Finally, as I know this is a subject you are deeply interested in,could I suggest that rather than making automatic responses claiming that the hierarchy of the British Army were all good men and true you contact the MOD, Judge Advocate General and Lord Chief Justice and just ask them the question.

Cheers

Raggytash