I didn't know about the executions, I did catch the Ray Mears episode about it. There wasn't any mention of that. It mostly focused on how they hid & survived. Like you said, they did what they had to do to survive. They also had to contend with the so called "fog of war", not any easy task I'm sure....
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....he felt the prompting of his heritage, the desire to possess, the wild danger-love, the thrill of battle, the power to conquer or to die. Jack London