# Soldiers shot as spies - real or just a movie/TV thing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 28, 2020, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-shot-as-spies-real-or-just-a-movie-tv-thing/921760 "2020-09-28T18:47:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2020, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-shot-as-spies-real-or-just-a-movie-tv-thing/921760/1 "2020-09-28T18:47:34Z")
Based on Hollywood if a solider is not in uniform and captured they get shot. Did/does that really happen in wars? ---
**Author:** ![Uniqueorn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uniqueorn/32/2807_2.png) [@Uniqueorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uniqueorn)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2020, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-shot-as-spies-real-or-just-a-movie-tv-thing/921760/2 "2020-09-28T18:53:03Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2020, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-shot-as-spies-real-or-just-a-movie-tv-thing/921760/3 "2020-09-28T19:00:04Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2020, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-shot-as-spies-real-or-just-a-movie-tv-thing/921760/4 "2020-09-28T19:01:06Z")
During WWII, Nazi commandos were executed for wearing American and British uniforms. Warning, the article includes photos from their execution. > **[đź“· Nazi commandos captured wearing U.S. Army uniforms are prepared for execution.](https://medium.com/greatepicurean/german-nazi-ss-commandos-captured-wearing-us-army-uniforms-are-prepared-for-execution-1944-holocaust-f53016e7ac8d)** > > 1944 ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2020, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-shot-as-spies-real-or-just-a-movie-tv-thing/921760/5 "2020-09-28T19:27:18Z")
Well Nathan Hale was captured and hanged by the British for spying in Manhattan. > **[Nathan Hale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Hale)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > > Nathan Hale (June 6, 1755 – September 22, 1776) was an American Patriot, soldier and spy for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He volunteered for an intelligence-gathering mission in New York City but was captured by the British and executed. Hale is considered an American hero and in 1985 was officially designated the state hero of Connecticut. > Nathan Hale was born in Coventry, Connecticut, in 1755, to Deacon Richard... ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2020, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-shot-as-spies-real-or-just-a-movie-tv-thing/921760/6 "2020-09-28T19:32:33Z")
Yeah, many of the English-speaking German troops who took part in operation [Operation Greif](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2020, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-shot-as-spies-real-or-just-a-movie-tv-thing/921760/7 "2020-09-28T20:11:02Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2020, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-shot-as-spies-real-or-just-a-movie-tv-thing/921760/8 "2020-09-28T20:12:55Z")
But I don’t believe he was wearing a British uniform. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2020, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-shot-as-spies-real-or-just-a-movie-tv-thing/921760/9 "2020-09-28T20:18:30Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2020, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-shot-as-spies-real-or-just-a-movie-tv-thing/921760/10 "2020-09-28T20:23:09Z")
You’re right, I misread. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2020, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-shot-as-spies-real-or-just-a-movie-tv-thing/921760/11 "2020-09-28T21:42:12Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2020, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-shot-as-spies-real-or-just-a-movie-tv-thing/921760/12 "2020-09-29T08:39:08Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Based on Hollywood if a solider is not in uniform and captured they get shot. Did/does that really happen in wars? 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.