You can free captured troops in an op!

[xerxes]

I was testing my latest operation, "Gambler's Fallacy" and at one point a Soviet mg was broken and surrendered <coward>. As the battle progressed I was able to liberate the whining cur (now sans mg).

Once the next battle started I checked out my lily-livered friend, and what do you know, but he had gained 3 crewmen back and had his mg back!

Just thought you all might like to know. Liberating prisoners in an operation is extremely important.

[ December 13, 2002, 02:39 PM: Message edited by: xerxes ]

[mike the wino2]

You should have shot them for surrendering in the first place.

[PantherG]

That wouldn't have been very nice.

[Bruceov]

Does shooting prisoners cost you points?

[CombinedArms]

Originally posted by Bruceov:

Does shooting prisoners cost you points?

It does if you could recover the p risioners instead, as in this example.

OTOH, prisoners cost you twice as many points as casualties, so there might be some argument for shooting those you can't rescue. But it's generally considered

1) Sadistic

2) Rather bad form, old chap

3) Kinda gamey, too....

[Eden Smallwood]

In a QB, your prisoners, (I mean, enemies you've captured), can liberate *themselves* if you don't keep a close eye on them.

Eden

[mike the wino2]

Guess I have the memory ingrained from "Enemy at the Gate" where the MG was set up behind the Russian inf and they shoot anyone retreating. How common was it that deserters were shot on the battlefield?

[OGF Keller]

Originally posted by mike the wino:

Guess I have the memory ingrained from "Enemy at the Gate" where the MG was set up behind the Russian inf and they shoot anyone retreating. How common was it that deserters were shot on the battlefield?

On the Russian front?? All too common.

And that's not all.

In Stalingrad, commanders who has soliders desert under their watch, whether they knew it was going to happen or not, were ALSO shot and, in some cases when they DID know, and DID turn them in, were themselves shot for not shooting the intended deserters on the spot INSTEAD of turning them in.

Anthony Beevor in his book on Stalingrad told a story of a battalion commander who had a group under his command desert. He gathered up his troops, went down the line, and shot every 10th guy in the fashion of a Roman legion.

Guys who were missing for days and trapped but eventually "rescued" were ALSO shot as deserters, the reasoning been if you somehow managed to survive you must have been deserting or, even worse, gone over to the enemy who allowed you to stay alive.

Insanity, pure and simple.

[Sgt. Steiner]

Another reason the Russians shot so many of their own is that quite simply, it was against Red Army regulations to surrender.

This was used as an excuse to execute or send to the gulags the hundreds of thousands of Russian POW's liberated at war's end. Along with the reasoning that the POW's had been exposed to harmful Western influence while in captivity. Didn't want that rubbing off on the rest of the Red Hordes..

[Desertor]

I'm happy to see a topic about prisioners and desertors