Chapter 2 looks at seamen who were ‘aliens’ (non-subjects), and shows that legal distinctions ultimately mattered little to the Navy. Britain was rather open to immigration, and during wartime most residual disabilities of non-subjects were eased for common sailors, who were needed and overall welcome. At the same time, military necessity meant that any advantages which their status as subjects of a different sovereign should have afforded them, most notably protection from impressment (forced service), were often ignored in practice. In courts martial, special accommodations and concessions were granted informally, as a result of perceived cultural ignorance, rather than on the basis of legal status. Finally, naturalisation was liberally bestowed on naval seamen, but it was, this chapter argues, a largely irrelevant benefit. The state was very quick to revoke its protection if this clashed with native allegiances, and during wartime the alien sailor, already allowed to work in both the Navy and merchant vessels, did not stand to gain much from being naturalised. If individual seamen strategically navigated legal status and national allegiances, so did the state itself: when in need of manpower, it did not hesitate to treat its own legal categories and subjecthood boundaries as pliable.

Surveys the laws and procedures for the POWs, who came in front of military tribunals, and the German women, who usually had to stand a public trial at a special court, an institution set up to repress and ruthlessly punish dissenting behavior. Briefly touches on trials against civilian men, including trials for homosexual acts.

Analyzes the military tribunals and special court trials. While the former became harsher in response to massive steering from the highest places (the High Command of the Army and Hitler personally), the latter became more lenient, partly in reaction to an intervention by Hitler in 1942 that denied women agency and therefore allowed the courts to be more lenient, especially if the woman had a forgiving soldier husband. While the military tribunals proceeded under international observation, the women were often interrogated and intimidated by the Gestapo. Their confessions counted almost always as proof even if the prisoner denied the charges.

This chapter discusses the perception of commanders and surgeons of their black soldiers from 1795 to c. 1830. In an era so dominated by slavery, it is unusual to find so many positive reports about black men. Commanders generally thought them to be ideal soldiers – brave, committed and obedient, while their usefulness in battle was proved again and again. Even more important were the innate and permanent medical differences reported by regimental surgeons. Black skin, it was thought, afforded black soldiers special protection against tropical illness and healed far more rapidly than white skin, effectively functioning as a form of natural armour. The stamina and hardiness of West India Regiment soldiers enabled them to undertake marches in tropical heat without flagging. They also possessed hyper-attuned senses that made them ideal for tracking the enemy in difficult jungle terrain, more accurate with a rifle and better able to hear instructions conveyed via bugles and drums on the battlefield. By almost every measure commanders thought the West India Regiment soldier was an improvement on the white soldier, but the lasting legacy was a rich literature authored by army surgeons claiming that black and white bodies were fundamentally different.