Why were people shot at dawn in WW1 and not other times of the day?

Question: Why were people shot at dawn in WW1 and not other times of the day!?
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

That was a custom of the time within Western Armies while deployed in combat!. Executions have used means other than death by firing squad, which was considered a more honorable form of execution for a soldier!. Western navies have preferred death by hanging!.

That was by no means the only time Armies conducted executions!. Obviously execution by firing squad required daylight!. Hangings, like Saddam's, sometimes occurred in the darkness before dawn!.

Some executions were held in mid-day to ensure maximum viewing by the troops, so that the example would be made clear when desertion or cowardice in battle were the charges!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Flydog's answer is the most logical: Greatest number of troops could see the event, if done at dawn!.

Those shot at dawn would have been deserters!. This kind of crime was especially odious, because it was a crime against not just the state - but to all their fellows in the army!. Loyal soldiers would be very hateful of deserters, knowing some of their comrades had died just because others refused to do their jobs!.

(eg, Typical army conversation after someone deserted:
'What happened to Larry!?' 'Got hit by a shell, on the squad's left flank!.' 'How could that happen!? Wasn't Tom supposed to be on guard there!?' 'No, Tom deserted!. Probably off having some beers with his buddies!.' 'So that's why Larry had to die!?
So that Tom could have some beers with his buddies!? Boy,
just gimme five minutes in a dark room with Tom, and!.!.!.!.
well, you get the idea!.)

Criminal justice once especially involved participation by the whole community, believing certain crimes were 'sins' against the whole community - Army desertion especially so, thus it had to be done as the most-public-event possible, at dawn!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

At the time, it was thought that a person's soul journeyed directly towards the sun when it was released from the body (having to do with the theory of "phlogiston" popular at the time and influenced by the Indian mystic tradition)!.

So the thinking went that if prisoners were shot as the sun rose, the departing souls would move over the land straight towards the horizon, and their ghosts would terrorize the enemy camps on the Eastern front as they went!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

The tradition of executions at dawn goes back a very long way, long before WW1!. What purpose it originally served, I don't know, but by the twentieth century it was just a tradition!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Just a guess, but dawn is when the troops are usually assembled, and there was a larger audience to witness the firing squad do its work!. Definitely a deterrent for those thinking of deserting!Www@QuestionHome@Com