"The Politics of Surrender: Canadian Soldiers and the..." Topic
7 Posts
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| Tango01 | 29 Mar 2023 8:44 p.m. PST |
… Killing of Prisoners in the Great War
Of possible interest?
Free to read PDF link
Armand
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| BillyNM | 29 Mar 2023 11:05 p.m. PST |
Fascinating but really a great more research required to determine if the Canadian experience was atypical. |
| Tango01 | 30 Mar 2023 3:22 p.m. PST |
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| Blutarski | 31 Mar 2023 7:33 a.m. PST |
Cannot recall whether Canadians per se were addressed, but read Martin Middlebrook's "First Day on the Somme" if you are interested in personal testimonies of British Army veterans of the 1916 Somme battle on how "inconvenient" captured Germans were occasionally handled. War is ugly business. B |
 20thmaine  | 31 Mar 2023 8:32 a.m. PST |
I recall US Marines being interviewed (some history channel show – years ago and of course I can't recall the title exactly) on fighting the Japanese and was quite surprised how blithely they admitted to shooting prisoners. |
| steve dubgworth | 02 Apr 2023 10:41 a.m. PST |
I think two situations could be considered based on various memoirs. 1. in hot battle = say a machine gunner keeps firing until troops enter the trench and then puts his hands up……"too late chum" he is killed. 2. Prisoners being escorted back were killed out of fear or spite especially if going back under fire. The first case is the risk faced in battle the second is clearly murder………….
I dont know if canadians were particularly vicious but there was the case of the crucified canadian which did cause ill will.
Highland regiments were know to be keen to enforce my case one but I dont know of any general policy to shoot prisonere. snipers, flamethrower units and those with serrated bayonets were in real danger of not being taken prisoner. |
| Die Engelsman | 17 Apr 2023 1:43 a.m. PST |
20th Maine I recall reading that in WWII the 14th Army weren't too scrupulous about taking prisoners either unless actually on a patrol with prisoner capture as the objective. A sense of giving what was deserved and a sensible caution about getting too close to wounded japs probably contributed.
The again a sense of "battlefield justice" also pervaded the European theatre by all accounts. Beyond the obvious hatred of SS members, snipers generally couldn't expect much mercy. Neither could the crews of Churchill Crocodiles or other weapons viewed as particularly "nasty".
I imagine similar sentiments prevailed in the First War. |
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