I listened to a BBC programe, which touched on the subject of his so called desertion
peggy seegers words" he told me he was called in by his colonel, he went home for a weekend when he came back his regiment had been sent off to europe without him, so he went to the higher ups and said wheres the regiment, they have gone off to europe so why wasnt i with them ,well you were in to political activism too early we are not sending you abroad, he was put on potato peeling, he described potato peeling week after week so i reckon he probably left because of that,. he talked very little about the war and i never asked him"Peggy Seeger
      
As far as i am concerned that puts a different complexion on his so called desrtion
I will also state that when i first met him i did not like him, Idid not know him well, but i decided rightly or wrongly to avoid him. Idid book them once for a club i ran and they were very good, i later did a support gig for them and again they played to a full house and were very good
despite my dislike of him at that time I met him, i find this harping on his so called desertion unfair.
my father was also in the communist party, and went on the run,but when Stalin joined the war fought in Africa as an Electrician in tanks, he talked little about the war and could not handle doing anything electrical as it brought back bad memories.
Ewan was a great songwriter and a very good performer, despite my initial dislike of him. I realise with hindsight he did an awful lot of good for the uk folk revival dare i say.....in some ways we could do with him now.