For me - RAF ground crew working on either Spits or Lancs.
Bomb aimer on Lancs or Halifaxes.
The thought of being an SOE operative fascinates me.
I would have like to have been a paratrooper to honor my father who served in the 11th Airborne
what I did in real life. USN
Andorra sounds fine.
A German serving in Denmark would also be ok, they called it “the whipped cream” front.
I see that no one opted for Japanese units? Stationed somewhere too hot and humid to sustain human life with Bushido, small amounts of rice and all the grass, leaves or kelp you can eat isn´t attractive?
In my case I have a rather greater objection to the fact that they were pretty much all war criminals…
I think that’s a bit harsh.
Pretty much all Japanese weren’t war criminals, any more than pretty much all German soldiers were war criminals.
There is plenty of evidence of war crimes or, perhaps more accurately crimes against humanity, by both German and Japanese (and Allies, but that’s always ignored), but it’s not the case that all the service people engaged in such acts.
Most didn’t.
Just to add to my last post, I don’t think it’s generally realised that some Japanese troops existed under awful conditions, even as early as late 1942 when they were still trying to hold New Guinea and Guadalcanal.
http://www.ww2australia.gov.au/beachheads/thin.html
They’re not units anyone would want to serve in, but not because the members were mostly war criminals.
I think the big problem, and what helped turn Japanese troops into “war criminals” --in China at least-- is the almost criminal negligence of the Japanese high command to reduce logistical matters like feeding their troops as a trivial afterthought. This did nothing but inspire a callous, almost Darwinist, brutality and indifference towards human suffering that filtered down from the highest levels of the Japanese Imperial Army commands to the privates and unfortunate, bottom-feeder, Korean draftees.
If you say that, all US bomber crews are war crimminals:D
I’d argue that the majority of the German soldiers who fought in Russia probably were. The mass murder of Russian PoWs, Russian Civilians, etc. involved the majority of the German troops present. Indeed, the German High Command had to give specific orders that troops were not to take time out to murder Jews because it was affecting combat efficiency.
I also hold perhaps a rather harsh view on the soldiers who were present when these atrocities were committed - in my view, any who were present and didn’t in any way speak out against them share the culpability and were also war criminals.
As for the Japanese, quite apart from the fact that a very high fraction of the Japanese troops fought in China/Burma and hence were in areas where the local civilians were badly mistreated the use of what were effectively Korean slaves as “comfort women” is also arguably a war crime.
Bombardment of defended towns is explicitly permitted under the Hague Convention of 1907, articles 25-27:
Undefended clearly means “undefended by ground troops” - i.e. could be occupied without resistance. And the requirement for a warning “except in cases of assault” should IMHO be read as saying that you need not give a warning if to do so would put your own forces at significantly increased risk (clearly the case in an air attack).
[QUOTE]quote:
Originally Posted by Rising Sun*
Pretty much all Japanese weren’t war criminals, any more than pretty much all German soldiers were war criminals.
I’d argue that the majority of the German soldiers who fought in Russia probably were. The mass murder of Russian PoWs, Russian Civilians, etc. involved the majority of the German troops present. Indeed, the German High Command had to give specific orders that troops were not to take time out to murder Jews because it was affecting combat efficiency.
I also hold perhaps a rather harsh view on the soldiers who were present when these atrocities were committed - in my view, any who were present and didn’t in any way speak out against them share the culpability and were also war criminals.
As for the Japanese, quite apart from the fact that a very high fraction of the Japanese troops fought in China/Burma and hence were in areas where the local civilians were badly mistreated the use of what were effectively Korean slaves as “comfort women” is also arguably a war crime.
[/QUOTE]
Then GIs who shot German POWs are war criminals- so is Bradley (maybe it was patton) Who said “I don want any captured German Snipers”. (he was implying that they should be shot) Shooing people who surendered was common in the US army in Europe.
Absolutely. Murdering PoWs is clearly a war crime (indeed, even mistreating them is one - and several British soldiers have recently been jailed for mistreating Iraqi prisoners under UK war crimes legislation). Ordering a “no survivors” policy with for example snipers is also explicitly a war crime, with both those who ordered it and those who carried it out being guilty.
The concept of command responsibility is such that if you know your unit is committing a war crime and do not actively seek to stop it then you become responsible for it.
if you say that, many (if not most) soldiers in WWII are war crimminals.
Depends where they fought. The fighting in the Desert, France and Italy was overwhelmingly following the laws of war, with some pretty limited exceptions. On the Eastern Front and in Yugoslavia the Germans and their allies ignored the laws of war wholesale while the Russians sometimes followed them, and in the Pacific the Japanese rarely paid even lip service to them.
Nah, some japanese did commit warrimes (like unit731) but most didnt.
You need to do a serious amount of reading. No matter where you look, cases of war crimes follow the Japanese army. From the treatment of Western PoWs, to the massacre of medical staff at the Battle of the Admin Box shortly before Imphal via the Rape of Nanking, wherever you look you find violations of the laws and customs of war. It gets even worse when you realise that Westerners were generally treated better than Asians by the Japanese. Chinese and Koreans were in particular treated very badly indeed.
gettin back 2 what the thread is about
i would be a prison guard .
I would like to be a bomber pilot and I would do whatever it takes to bomb the shit out of the enemy. If I were given the order to drop secret bombs then I would do so and take an order as a bomber pilot should. I am sure a lot of bomber pilots felt a stone in their stomach knowing their bombs were at times killing innocent human beings, but it would be the price to pay for Liberty. I hope I have expressed myself more eloquently this time around…
indeed you have Herman. but you mentioned innocent human beings. and there’s no way to keep from killing them. as many worked in the war plants. but I got in an argument on another board about bombing the concentration camps. ask many if given the order to bomb these camps would they obey??? it was a hot button issue. many said yes. the Jews were gonna die anyway. many said no way in hell am I bombing any prision camp. I found out many of the survivors agreed with those who wanted their camps bombed. some even prayed to be killed considering what they were going thru. I was one of those that said no way in hell. what do you think??? if ordered to bomb them would you??? keep in mind here I am NOT judging you or anyone for your decision. you don’t even have to answer. I have considered posting this for discussion but was not sure what forum to put it in. Vet
I think many pilots who dropped the bomb during war never thought twice because they were so gung ho and only afterwards would I personally feel the guilt of the inhumane that I may have done. Can you imagine what went through the mind of the bomber pilot that dropped the A-bomb. I mean, he must of had nightmares about it until the day he died. I haven’t read any biography on the A-bomb pilots but I can’t imagine they led normal lives afterwards…What a horrible horrendous feeling to have to live with. BUT as a pilot i think i would have obeyed my orders and not thought of it at the time…