Based on Hollywood if a solider is not in uniform and captured they get shot. Did/does that really happen in wars?
Not sure about them being shot for not being in uniform, as they could just be deserters, but I believe that German soldiers wearing allied uniforms over their own were shot as spies.
Some Germans in civilian clothing who landed in Florida during WWII were hanged after a trial, save for the guy who ratted on them, he was imprisoned.
During WWII, Nazi commandos were executed for wearing American and British uniforms. Warning, the article includes photos from their execution.
Well Nathan Hale was captured and hanged by the British for spying in Manhattan.
Yeah, many of the English-speaking German troops who took part in operation Operation Greif while wearing US uniforms were executed.
The general who planned that operation was later prosecuted for war crimes because of it, but charges were dropped as it was pointed out that Allied special forces did the same thing.
According the article, his defense was that it wasn’t a war crime for the troops to wear the uniforms as long as they did not fight in them, fwiw.
But I don’t believe he was wearing a British uniform.
Doesn’t need to be as part of the OP. He was a solder in Washington’s army and was out of uniform and spying.
You’re right, I misread.
If you read Paul Brickhill’s book The Great Escape (the basis for the movie of the same name; Brickhill had personal knowledge of the situation – he was a POW there) you can see how the escaping POWs were concerned about this very point. Of course they had to dress as civilians to make good their escape, but it meant that, if they were caught, they might be executed as spies.
There are descriptions in the book of how the captured POWs tried to explain their non-military dress – Oh, no, it’s different color because it had gotten stained, so I dyed it with boot polish. Of course it’s been recut. I lost a lot of weight in camp on prisoner’s rations, and so on. They wouldn’t have made all that effort if the stakes weren’t potentially high.
Generally, the Germans didn’t press the issue, until after the actual Big Escape, when just shy of 60 prisoners got out. Hitler personally ordered that many of them be shot, as an example. Even the Gestapo balked at this blatant disregard for the agreed-upon rules for POWs, and the camp commandant was especially upset about it (he had no hand in the shootings). But they did execute prisoners because of that. I’m not sure if they used the lack of uniforms as part of their excuse.
Yes. The Geneva convention states that military personnel in civilian clothes or in the uniform of their enemy can be treated as spies, put on trial and possibly executed. Soldiers in their correct uniform must be treated as prisoners of war.
In Germany during WW2, Hitler issued the Commando Order, which basically stated that Allied Commandos (in uniform) would be treated as spies, and many were executed under this edict. After the war, these executions were prosecuted as War Crimes.