Many WW2 films have ‘enemy’ fighters strafing columns of refugees. Did this actually happen and to what benefit ? It’s my understanding that WW2 fighters only had limited ammunition, it seems unlikely they would waste on non-military targets.
Can you name the films and scenes so we can put them in context? I think it would be difficult to find evidence of strafing refugees as an official military doctrine, although almost any atrocity is within the scope of individual action influenced by the mental stress of combat.
I don’t doubt you’ve seen this in the movies, but which ones?
Such incidents have been reported to involve the air forces of multiple nations, including Axis and Allied planes, to some degree because refugee columns got intermixed with retreating troops, as in France in 1940. In the Doolittle Raid, American bombers accidentally strafed some civilians, giving the Japanese an excuse to unleash a terror campaign in China in which a quarter of a million civilians were killed.
In the notorious Laconia Incident, survivors of the sinking of an Allied troopship died when strafed by a U.S. bomber attempting to sink a German sub involved in rescue operations.
I’m afraid I can’t remember an example. In the 1958 film Dunkirk, I think John Mills is with a few other troops in a refugee column, that gets strafed, although I could be mixing it up with different film. In this film, troops on the beaches are definitely strafed.
Troops on the beach are legitimate targets, but isn’t this a poor use of ammo ? The early Messerschmitts only carried 500 machine gun rounds.
Yes, it is a waste of ammo unless you are sure there are no more enemy planes in the area. But that being the case, it is often hard to tell the difference between a refugee column and fleeing soldiers from 2000 ft. and 300 mph.
I can’t name a movie that showed this specifically but I recall seeing scenes of fleeing refugees with bombs going off and smoke and machine gun fire in the background which might leave the impression that refugees are being strafed.
I also don’t know about movies, but WWII a/c strafing road traffic, or trains, would often end up killing civilians. Or sometimes their own troops. In the latter case it was clear they had no intention of doing so but simply misidentified their own troops/vehicles as enemy. With regard to civilians there was a range of possible levels of knowledge and intention by the air units.
In the early stages of the Korean War, UN (which mainly though not exclusively meant US) a/c strafed columns of people on roads headed south following the retreating UN ground forces, columns known to be at least partly composed of civilian refugees. It was believed the columns were infiltrated by North Korean soldiers using the civilians as cover. It’s still not clear to what extent that was true. This belief figured into the infamous incident at No Gun Ri in late July 1950 were US Army ground troops machined gunned such a column. But USAF memo’s from the time debate this practice by USAF a/c.
Here is a famous strafing scene from an award-winning film. Jeux Interdits, directed by Rene Clement. You may not recognise the film but you will surely recognise the theme tune.
After completing an escort mission, using up your ammo on “targets of opportunity” was definitely encouraged. Though I doubt a column known to be full of refugees would be considered as such. But certainly mistakes were made.
It’s a standard trope of movies made about the fall of Belgium and France in 1940, even (or especially?) those made during the war, such as “The Foreman Went to France” (1942). It was taken as read that it was a deliberate tactic to encourage chaos and confusion on the roads to block the movement of allied troops, though how planned and intentional it really was, I wouldn’t know. Certainly, British preparations for a possible invasion in the summer of 1940 emphasised that civilians should stay put.
I’ve seen a documentary with an old Russian guy talking (in Russian) about strafing retreating German civilians. He didn’t demonstrate any guilt about it: he seemed pleased with himself.
From what I’ve read about the Burma campaign, from the moment the Japanese lost air superiority, the POW’s were at risk from the allied air force. And they were taking pictures of the targets they hit. Either nobody was looking, or they just didn’t care.
You’re assuming that things have logical causes. But whenever there’s a war, it’s because at least someone is acting illogically.
Like, you’re assuming that trying to win a war is the reason that a military would be killing people. But it could be that killing people is the reason for the war. If your nation believes that a certain people must be wiped out, and so go to war against them, then strafing civilians of that people serves your purposes.
Fighters often left base quite intending to strafe things, rather than engage in aerial combat, and it’s hard to tell the difference between refugees and soldiers. Bear in mind that most German troops used horses and wagons to move things, so that would have made it very difficult indeed to tell soldiers from civilians.
Indeed, towards the end of the war, Allied and Soviet pilots didn’t see a great many German planes at all, unless - in the case of Allied pilots - they were actually flying into Germany itself on bombing missions and fighter sweeps. Around the front they were almost wholly dedicated to attacking ground targets, and they’d often shoot at anything that moved.
I thought was strange in Band of Brothers when they had scenes of Germans using horses to pull trucks but I guess it was common?
The Germans used quite a bit of horse drawn artillery and wagons.
I recall seeing gun camera footage of US fighters strafing targets in France or Germany, and one of the shots actually showed the pilot shooting at a horse and cart, the cart looking like a farmer’s hay wagon, and you can see the horse bucking as the tracers land all around.
In WWII, the Germans had the largest horse army the world has ever seen.
The American army was largely mechanized, but horses and mules were still common enough that Francis the Talking Mule was an army mule.
The Germans seriously lacked motorized transport; most of their divisions used horses to pull supplies and artillery throughout the war. It doesn’t look as intimidating on camera, though, so except in movies that strived for realism you rarely see it.
By war’s end the Allies and Soviets were fully motorized. This had rather an enormous impact. It was often said the most valuable Allied weapon was a two-and-a-half-ton truck.