That’s basically it. Are US servicemen and -women forbidden, or at the very least discouraged, from taking things from the corpses of slain enemies? A guy I knew in junior high school had a WWII German officers’ sword that he (the other kid) swore up and down that his grandfather had “relieved” the officer of after having shot him. And I knew a guy who came back from Iraq with a beautiful tribal knife and instructions not to ask about how he got it.
*I can think of a few specific situations where relieving an enemy corpse of certain belongings may be the prudent thing to do. Intel, for example, or rations if you’re low on your own, or perhaps his weapons (so his teammates can’t use them on our guys).
While removing certain items from an enemy soldier may be appropriate, such as rations, field maps, or logistic communications, internationally, “pillage” is considered a war crime. My father brought back a few “souvenirs” from his fighting in France after WWII, which consisted of a German knife, a Luger pistol, and some small odds and ends. Nothing that I would consider pillage.
Enemy materiel (food, ammunition, and weapons) can be seized and utilized on the battlefield. They are then turned over to higher authority.
But souvenirs are generally prohibited unless the servicemember follows specific rules and regulations, as required by U.S. law. Which basically means turning it over to higher authority and asking for permission to keep it. Which may or may not be granted…and any weapons are required to be made unserviceable.
But with that said, I’m sure unsanctioned souvenirs get taken home all the time, but if they get caught the servicemember can get in pretty serious trouble.
The regulations are almost certainly focused solely on firearms and the like—not swords, bayonets, or knives, whether obsolete or not.
ETA: Right, more guidance here:
Knives and bayonets are allowed to be taken as souvenirs, while weaponry (including firearms) are not. It doesn’t speak to obsolete, ceremonial objects like swords.
Interestingly, according to that paper, “knives” (with some exceptions) are explicitly not weapons, and swords are left unaddressed (but probably fall into the same category as knives), but nunchucks explicitly are weapons. But the origin of nunchucks is that they were something that was explicitly not a weapon (they were originally farming tools, used for threshing grain), and hence could legally be used by commoners, unlike swords, which could only be owned by the nobility.
In the recent Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, we were allowed to keep knives & bayonets and bring them home. There was paperwork involved, but not an excessive amount. I brought home a couple. Everything else had to be turned over to HQ. If the Iraqi Army was patrolling with us, they would snatch up everything for their own use before we could even blink. Weapons, ammo, everything. They’d just add it to their own supply.
For us, if it was a lot of stuff, we would blow it up. If it was just a couple rifles or something, we’d probably keep them to later hand over to SOI members or something.
I know that my uncle came back from Germany with a camera that he had lifted off a dead German soldier. He felt no compunction about this. But I doubt he ever told the authorities.
The quote attributed to WWI is “..the English fight for Honor, the French for Glory, but the Americans fight for SOUVENIRS!”
As others have said these things are highly regulated now. To be caught with an unauthorized war trophy is an invitation to criminal charges. Things may have been looser during the initial invasion of Iraq and when those troops went home. I don’t know, I wasn’t there. I know later when I was there we went through extensive and repeated inspections of our personal baggage and the unit’s containers before we left for home. The U.S. Coast Guard handled customs duty in Iraq. No one from my unit got in trouble for bringing anything back they shouldn’t. With the amount of warning we had about it you would have to be a complete idiot to try.
During the Napoleonic wars, if Cornwell’s Richard Sharpe series is correct, the loot a soldier could collect from enemy corpses was considered part of his pay. (I know, not the US military, but interesting.)
Depends on what you call ‘valuables’. In Afghanistan, during my EOD time, I routinely sifted through collected money, notes, photos, paperwork, and cellphones for intel on who was related to whom, who associated with whom, and who paid whom, to try to build networks and “break the chain” of IED funding, construction, and emplacement.
The statement to my folks: you don’t leave weapons or Intel behind.
Tripler
Non-military personal items were returned to families through the proper channels after processing.
I mean, if you defeat a man in combat, you’re entitled to his arms and armor. It’s a tradition dating back to the Bronze Age at least.
That said, I can see why modern militaries would forbid it. Stopping to loot while under fire, or having troops bicker over souvenirs, is unprofessional and bad for discipline. Besides, servicemembers are not private individuals, they’re part of an organization, and they’re not allowed to take gratuities. Any spoils of war belong to the military as a whole, and only it can decide how to dispose of them.
There were actually a few incidents. Saddam didn’t have one gold plated gun. He gave them out as gifts to his generals and others so there were multiple pieces. There was one incident when some of those weapons were intercepted at Heathrow.
Correct. Stuff that was issued by an enemy force was legit to loot. Personal items- photos, diaries, watches- was NOT. Some of that stuff- dairies for example- had to be turned over to Intelligence.
I am not surer what the current rules are, however.
It sounds like, for the most part, the US military does not prohibit taking souvenirs. It just requires that you go through the appropriate procedure for them.