Union soldier hanged for desertion during the American Civil War
AWOL literally means absent without leave - could be something as trivial as taking a day or two off from the military (without permission) to go fishing. Desertion, depending on a host of variables from military to military, is an aggravated AWOL where it seems from the context that the soldier isn't planning on coming back. Often in circumstances that give rise to an inference of cowardice, such as haring off to avoid combat. If it's wartime, stuff that might have been viewed as AWOL during peacetime can get treated as desertion.
As to why desertion can result in the death penalty, well - war is tough, and the military doesn't want people to give in to the (perfectly reasonable) instinct of not wanting to go or stay where bullets are flying, things are blowing up, and people are dying.
Attempt to force Russian deserters back to the front line during WW1
So militaries have to beat that instinct out of soldiers, and one way of doing that is to present them with the calculation that their odds of dying are greater if they don't fight. Try your luck in battle, and you might live or you might die. If not, try your luck in front of a firing squad, and certainly die.
French firing squad escorting a deserter to site of execution in WW1
Militaries - at least militaries in the Developed World - don't do that anymore. But that's probably because there haven't been any desperate do or die wars since WW1 and WW2 days, when everybody was executing deserters - the Germans and Soviets at a significantly higher clip than the other combatants.
German soldiers preparing to execute deserters in 1945
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