Penal military unit

Penal battalions, penal companies, etc., are military formations consisting of convicted persons for which military service in such units was either the assigned punishment or an alternative to imprisonment or capital punishment.

Great Britain

 * See Royal African Corps (1800–1821), and its derivative units.

France

 * See Battalion of Light Infantry of Africa formed in 1832 and made up of men with prison records who still had to do their military service or soldiers with serious disciplinary problems.
 * See Régiment pénal de l'Ile de Ré, formed in 1811

Italy

 * See Battaglione di rigore of Genio Lavoratori (Italian Social Republic)

Nazi Germany

 * See Afrika-Brigade 999 (AKA Bewährungseinheiten 999, Strafbataillon 999, Bewährungstruppe 999, Division 999).


 * See Dirlewanger Brigade (AKA SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger).


 * See Strafbattalion (Wehrmacht Heer unit)

Soviet Union

 * See shtrafbat (NKVD prisoner battalions in World War II)

United States

 * See Galvanized Yankees; during the American Civil War, Confederate prisoners of war who swore allegiance to the Union were allowed to join the Union Army and serve on the western frontier.

References in culture

 * The story, "The Warlord" by Soviet writer Vladimir Karpov recounts Karpov's military career from a penal company serviceman to a Guards Colonel awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
 * Nikolai Dostal's critically acclaimed 11-part television serial, Penal Battalion ("Shtrafbat" ("Штрафбат", ), was released in 2004.
 * The Dirty Dozen, a 1967 American film about a fictional U.S. penal military unit directed by Robert Aldrich, from the novel by E.M. Nathanson.
 * The novels by Sven Hassel about the (fictional) 27th Penal Panzer Regiment.
 * Between Heaven and Hell (film) features a paroled military prisoner sent to a company that contains a variety of misfits.
 * the novel Biribi by French author Georges Darien is based on his memories of his own military service in the African Battalion.
 * The hero of Paullina Simons' Bronze Horseman trilogy, Alexander Belov, is sentenced to serve in a Red Army penal battalion.
 * The Soviet faction in Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 have penal flak infantry units whose quotes convey disapproval of their situation.
 * The Penal Legions of Warhammer 40,000 consist of prisoners convicted of anything from failure to return library books to murder.
 * Bad Company of Battlefield: Bad Company and its sequels is a fictional US Military penal battalion.