"Killing the Prisoners: What Did Decatur Order?" Topic
8 Posts
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 Editor in Chief Bill   | 13 Dec 2018 6:48 p.m. PST |
…Burning the Philadelphia was so important in the Barbary Wars, and such a dramatic aspect of Decatur's life, that it is retold by every naval historian writing about that era. Yet one element of the action remains unexplored—and casts a shadow over the story… link |
| DeRuyter | 14 Dec 2018 11:24 a.m. PST |
Considering you are fighting opponents who surrender but then start fighting again when in an advantageous position this rumor is not unexpected. |
| PzGeneral | 14 Dec 2018 12:16 p.m. PST |
DeRuyter,
I believe the article states those were Decatur's thoughts also…. |
| goragrad | 14 Dec 2018 1:29 p.m. PST |
And to the point, while there was no refutation of the claim by anyone involved on the ship, there is not an eye witness report of any prisoners killed. However, if taken (and an offer of surrender does not have to be accepted) prisoners should not have been killed. |
 Legion 4  | 14 Dec 2018 2:57 p.m. PST |
Considering you are fighting opponents who surrender but then start fighting again when in an advantageous position this rumor is not unexpected. For better or worse that may be why it happened. But again, do we know for a fact that EPWs were killed ? |
| Dn Jackson | 15 Dec 2018 5:30 p.m. PST |
I read the article the other day in Naval History magazine. The idea, (accusation?) is from a single source that wasn't on the Philadelphia during the fight. |
| Legion 4 | 17 Dec 2018 8:06 a.m. PST |
Yes, it is easy to accuse/give an opinion but were not there … The Media does it all the time !  |
| Blutarski | 18 Dec 2018 1:37 p.m. PST |
Ugly business.
Attorneys and legal thinkers are free to craft laws of war and military codes of conduct. Those who actually do the fighting at risk of their lives will be forgiven by me if they occasionally contravene such strictures in extreme and unusual cases such as Decatur faced. That having been said, by my reading, innumerable surrendered enemy have died after the fact at the hands of their captors. Their are numerous first-person accounts from many sides attesting to this having occurred in WW1 and WW2. B |
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