Yes, that has also occurred numerous times during allied air raids on Germany. I don’t have the sources readily available, but I’ve read about this. There have also been claims that Germany used POWs as human shields.
Good thing we never captured any of these German solders. After shooting at white men, we’d feed and house them. After whistling at white women, we’d cave their faces in.
Operation Chastise, the operation made famous by the book and movie The Dam Busters, killed more Soviet POWs than Axis troops.
Family legend has it that Belgium POW camps were the worst (no experience with Soviet ones, though). Apparently, they were willing to let the POWs just about starve to death.
Belgian POW camps? No offense to the Belgians but they were overrun pretty quickly in 1940. How many German POW’s did they have and how long would they have remained in captivity?
If you’re talking about post-liberation Belgium, I’d be surprised if they had any POWs. The country was too busy rebuilding after several years of German occupation to take on the responsibility for holding POWs.
Shag’s right though; would you have rather the US armed forces beaten and starved the German prisoners, lest we treat them well, and possibly better than some black people had it back then?
It was 70 years ago. Let it go- there’s nothing you can do about it now, and dwelling on silly things like whether or not people in the South were institutionally racist back then isn’t doing anyone any good.
How the heck did we get off on it, unless Yankees are prejudiced?
:rolleyes:
What struck me was the fairly recent documentary (I think on PBS, maybe Ken Burns) on WWII and the interviews with actual soldiers and marines where they admitted to having just killed the Japanese they captured rather than try and keep them prisoners. Not all the time, of course, but often enough. It’s horrifying to think of, but hard to know how we would act in the same situation. I’ve never had to fight, so I hope I would do better, but I think it’s naive to believe war doesn’t change you.
My Father told of he and his associates shooting at a parachuting Japanese pilot who had been bombing their tents and trying to kill them. They were somewhat annoyed at him.
Good Lord.
The Pacific War was extraordinarily brutal on a level that most people don’t realize, I’m not trying to white-wash any of it at all. A couple of quick examples of what was fairly normal conduct: S. E. Morrison in his volume on Guadalcanal relates that in the aftermath of the First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal the stricken cruiser Atlanta was taken in tow by the tug Bobolink. The crew of the Bobolink went about machine gunning every dark head they saw afloat until Captain Jenkins of the Atlanta begged them to desist lest mistakes be made. Russell Spurr’s A Glorious Way to Die: The Kamikaze Mission of the Battleship Yamato relates how American aircraft went about strafing lifeboats and floating survivors.
Regarding surrenders though, there comes a point in battle where one side has very clearly lost, further resistance serves no meaningful military purpose and any obligations of martial honor have long since been met. At this point the losing side surrenders en masse. This never happened with the Japanese in WWII. They would literally fight to the last man, which while it makes for great heroic tales almost never actually happens. Had Tarawa, Iwo Jima, or any of those other battles been fought against Germans there would have been thousands of prisoners taken as they would have surrendered en masse when the point of utter futility of further resistance was reached.
On a related note.
I read once where the German POW had escaped. Know how they caught him? He was on a bus in the back sitting under a sign that said “Colored Only”.
This statement is true, however it want because the US soldiers were murdering savages. The reason for that unofficial policy was the behavior of the Japanese soldiers themselves. The Japanese would surrender and have a hidden grenade on their person. When a Marine would attempt to make them a prisoner, the Japanese soldier would kill them both. This was true of Japanese wounded as well. A medic would attempt to aid a fallen Japanese soldier only to be killed when the wounded soldier detonated a grenade.
Marines witnessing this behavior more than once finally had enough and swore to take no Japanese prisoners. Even the wounded were shot from a distance. A sad as it was, I can’t say I blame the Marines.
When I was in grade 3 (early 60’s) I remember the teacher mentioning that there had been a POW camp in the Don Valley not far from Toronto in WWII. He also mentioned that sometimes the guards would beat up some prisoners when they got bad news from the war front.
I also recall reading about some German POW’s who escaped from a camp in Alberta(?) and made it to the USA border, only to have the USA enter the war not long after.
I think in some notes I read about the Iwo Jima battle, there were memoirs of the local inhabitants of the island - mentioning that the Imperial officers came around and told them they would be slaughtered and their women raped if the Americans landed. They were even given grenades so they could try to take as many Americans as they could with them when feigning surrender. Presumably the Japanese troops were given the same pep talk. I imagine the US troops were as different, foreign, and menacing to them as their troops seemed to us.
No, I’m going to guess that nevadaexile would have been happy if southerners had been willing to extend to their fellow Americans the same courtesy they were willing to extend to enemy soldiers during a war.
And it’s southerners who are always bringing up their “heritage”. So don’t blame the rest of us if we point out what their heritage really was about.
He clearly hadn’t done his escaping homework…
:dubious:
There is a special place in hell for shooting injured and disabled people. I do blame the Marines who did so…and the soldiers, sailors and airmen of any nation who did so.
Cite, please. I can’t seem to find that particular excuse used in the stories I’ve read about the “souvenirs” taken by American troops.
Nor are we courteous to folks who type “southerners” instead of “Southerners”.
:rolleyes:
How about Southers. Is that acceptable?