Allied atrocities

[Jim O]

Originally Posted by Egorka

Hello guys,

I did not have time to read this thread, so bear with me if has been mentioned already...

Few years ago I heard from a British guy that when allies landed in France in 1944 they did not take prisoners first few days simply because it was very unpractical during the landing operation.

Do you know what were the orders they might have had in this respect?

I don't know what you mean by "first few days" but I doubt there were specific "no prisoner" orders, at least not any official orders to that effect.


The above is from June 8, 1944 (D+2) and shows German prisoners at Pointe du Hoc under the guard of US Army Rangers.

[barrett.t]

I think sometimes some Historians in the west have got lost in the emotionalism of the holocaust. That certain subjects of world war two are taboo and beyond a biased debate and historical discussion. That is to say too many people have been scared to try to be objective (if this is possible). That it is to say that the accepted idea that everyone should condemn the Nazis as generally bad and evil and the allies as generally good and moral which is far from the real truth. Even though I disagree with David Irving as much as anyone would reading and seeing the evidence, as one famous American said "I defend to my death his right to say it." Historical debate is the only prisoner that came out of his court case. If he had said that Stalin had not killed anyone, nobody would have really batted an eyelid why? Or at least he would not have gone to prison.

[barrett.t]

History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.

Sir Winston Churchill

[sniper1shot]

It has come to light in the past few years that the Allies killed or at least did nothing to stop the deaths of German POWs where an estimated 1 million died. There are a couple of books on it.(title could be off) The Other Side of the Wire.

[Hagen]

I had a boss once, quite a while back now. And one night after work and a few drinks he started telling me about his time in WW2 as an infantryman. He said he saw Germans shot out of hand. He told me he saw tanks shoot down Germans trying to surrender, "tanks can't take prisoners." he said. He also told me in combat things just start to get out of control and sometimes you just don't stop shooting. Heat of the moment and all that. Another example was of a GI who found out his brother was killed, he didn't take any prisoners for a while, he just shot them.
Atrocities happened on both sides in all army's. I don't think thats anything new.

[Klaus]

Warcrimes happened on all sides. That's true. But the Wehrmacht, SS and Sondereinheiten had the orders to do so. At least during Operation "Barbarossa". The Russians had similar oders while they were advancing on German borders. I don't know of any orders of that kind from the Western Allies. Not of that scale.

Gott mit uns

Klaus