Josef Jakobs Josef Jakobs Josef Jakobs (30 June 1898 – 15 August 1941) was a German spy and the last person to be executed at the Tower of London. He was captured shortly after parachuting into the United Kingdom during the Second World War. Convicted of espionage under the Treachery Act 1940, Jakobs was shot by a military firing squad. He was not hanged because he was captured as an enemy combatant. Jakobs, who was a German citizen, was born in Luxembourg in 1898. During the First World War, he served in the German infantry, rising to the rank of "Leutnant", in
To the Last Man (Torchwood) Raynor was also inspired by the issue of World War I soldiers who were executed for cowardice when they were suffering from shellshock. One of the episode's working titles was "Soldier's Heart", an American Civil War term for shellshock. The final title recalls an infamous order from Field Marshal Douglas Haig on 11 April 1918, in response to the German Spring Offensive, which included the phrase: "Every position must be held to the last man: there must be no retirement". This policy led shell-shocked soldiers, like the fictional Tommy, to be sent back to war after a very short recuperation