July 23, 2012
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Aussie POW's
The book I read to research this post was Aussie Soldier Prisoner of War by Craig Smith et al which is an excellent book which I think I downloaded for free from Kindle. Although Australia was involved in Vietnam, Iraq & Afghanistan no POW's were taken by the enemy. Most of their soldiers who were captured were during World War 2. Many of these were when many of the asian countries capitulated in the wake of the japanese onslaught. The japanese were particularly cruel & apparently there's evidence they intended for their POW's to be worked to death and leave no survivors. Often they confiscated the prisoners red cross parcels or withheld their rations when they were distributed. The germans and italians treated tended to follow the geneva convention. The germans though would be much crueller to people like russian POW's. It has to be said the allies sometimes committed war crimes although the perpetrators tended to get away with it. If you have seen the film Breaker Morant it's about some australian soldiers who were ordered to shoot their POW's and followed it only to be tried and executed for war crimes. A lot of australians were captured at Crete in World War 2 which along with the war in Russia was key in slowing the advance of the axis powers at a crucial time. If the germans had seized the russian oilfields advanced into India and linked up with proIraq forces the outcome could have been different. When the big push for Berlin happened it's worth noting many germans were massacred. The japanese often forced women prisoners into the sex trade.
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