Photo by Archives of Canada/K. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_prisoners_of_war_in_northwest_Europe Later I took part in four more such executions." German military tribunals, Volchek reports, sentenced to death some 30,000 soldiers – and approximately the same number of German deserters at the end of the war. General Karl Freiherr von Thüngen was executed on 24-10-1944, age 51, after the failed 20 July Plot. Canadian soldiers display a Nazi flag removed from a building in Xanten, Germany as the Second World War was coming to an end in 1945. The chart below provides estimates of the number of soldiers killed, wounded, and reported missing during World War I. S/He notes that a number of soldiers deserted early in 1914, before the horrors of trench warfare took their toll, and that some soldiers committed murders, so a blanket pardon was inappropriate, and 'The idea that all those executed for desertion were innocents "murdered" by the British Army is simply a myth'. Many people at the start of the 20th Century didn't have birth certificates, so it was easy to lie about how old you were. I have been visiting many of these locations for … In the first few months of 1945, some 800 people were executed in the Plötzensee prison, over 400 of them being German citizens. Wendy Jo Gertejanssen showed that at least 15,000 Soviet women, among them at least 1,000 Soviet Red Army members, were forced to serve as prostitutes in the German’s field brothels for the army. Later, Colonel Howard Buechner wrote that more than 500 were killed. Other soldiers of the 3rd Battalion, 157th Infantry Regiment, of the US 45th (Thunderbird) Division killed other guards who resisted. Interestingly, there were some cases where they were kept alive. In all, about 30 were killed, according to the commanding officer Felix L. Sparks. During World War II, British military tribunals sentenced to death 40 soldiers, French ones – 102, and American ones – 146. Schlieffen was an ardent student of military history, and his strategic plan was inspired by the Battle of Cannae (216 bce), a pivotal engagement during the Second Punic War.At Cannae the Carthaginian general Hannibal defeated a much larger Roman force with a successful double envelopment, turning the Roman army’s flanks and destroying it. At total of 304 men were executed during the First World War, while another 18 suffered the same fate while waiting to leave the army after the signing of the Armistice. Dear Members, Im doing a major photographic study of the execution sites of those soldiers who were Shot at Dawn during WW1, killed by their own side for what was deemed as cowardice and desertion. Between 1943 and 1945, the People’s Courts under jurist Roland Freisler sentenced around 7,000 people to death. Shot at dawn: the First World War soldiers executed for desertion and cowardice Try 3 issues of BBC History Magazine or BBC History Revealed for only £5 The sites at which British, French and Belgian troops were executed for desertion and cowardice during the First World War have been captured on film. Bell Exact numbers are often disputed and are nearly impossible to determine for a variety of reasons. Different countries used different methods to count their dead and injured, and some methods were more reliable than others. The minimum height requirement … We were told later that he had in fact been suffering from shell-shock, a condition not recognised by the army at the time. Female snipers of the Soviet 3rd Shock Army/1st Belorussian Front during WWII.