war crimes of world war II committed by the allies?

Question

Hi, We all know about the countless War Crimes and crimes against humanity that where Committed by the Axis during the war years, but I have never heard of any published crimes by Allies, Was any allied commander or anyone found guilty of any crime at anytime during the war?

Answer 1

The victrorious of war are not charged with war crimes, they accuse others of such deeds. Did atrocities occur? Yes, it was war! The fire bombing of Dresden, Hamburg and Darmstadt in Germany are often thought of as atrocities. Some nights 50 000 died in one city alone by the actions of the allied bombings. The massacre of German prisoners of War by the Russians cannot be overlooked nor the mass killing of Polish officers by the Russians. The fire bombing of Tokyo and the dropping of the two atomic bombs could be added to the list depending on your thoughts about the necessity to use the atomic weaponry. Pehaps the greatest crime of the allies during World War II was their knowledge of Auschwitz and other death camps by escaped survivors and doing nothing about it, not even dropping bombs on the tracks. They bombed factories near the camps, but never on the tracks approaching the camps. It would have been a token measure only but it would have made the Germans aware the allies knew what was happening. Also, the attitude of accepting Jewish refugees before and during the war is horrific. No one wanted them. Look to the voyage of the St. Louis, a ship which was denied landing anywhere in North America and forced to return to Europe where many died at the hands of the Nazi's later in the War. The unofficial policy in my own country of Canada, appeared to be "None is too Many" the title of an excellent book. The British controlled the immigration limits to Palestine and the numbers were painfully small. Perhaps it was this attitude that contributed to the success of the Holocaust and thus was the greatest War Crime by the allies during World War II.

Answer 2

Well the firebombing of Dresden is a controversial subject and often considered a war crime. In fact a whole host of cities were bombed with huge civilian losses.

Nagasaki and Hiroshima are often thought to be too.

The worst maritime loss of all time was the sinking of a civilian vessel taking germans out of a besieged Koningsberg. But amidst the sheer scale of death and destruction in late 1944 it barely even mentions a historical footnote.

The issue being that the crimes by the Nazis were so mind-numbingly vast that those of the allies simply pale in comparison.

Of course I talk here about the liberal democracies, the Soviets committed a systematic rape and pillage of Germany as they rolled the front line across it's borders towards Berlin, but after what they suffered can you blame them really.

Was anyone found guilty? Not that I'm aware of, and certainly not during the Nuremberg trials which were exclusively for the German upper echelons.

Answer 3

A state of war is not an excuse to just do anything you want to do. Soldiers and their leaders are still held to account for acts of violence that are outside the duties of fighting the enemy. GI's and Tommy's were not excused either. Thousands of GI were court-martialed for killing civilians or committing rape. The Nazis and Imperialists Japanese stepped over the line with things like the Holocaust and the Rape of Nanking or Bataan Death March. Was everyone guilty of committing a crime during the war brought to justice? No...but some of the more serious mass murders were brought before the War Crimes court and addressed.

Answer 4

An opinion was rendered in international courts to wit:

"in the light of international humanitarian law, it should be borne in mind that during the Second World War there was no agreement, treaty, convention or any other instrument governing the protection of the civilian population or civilian property, as the Conventions then in force dealt only with the protection of the wounded and the sick on the battlefield and in naval warfare, hospital ships, the laws and customs of war and the protection of prisoners of war"

At the time, "total war" meant the civilians on both sides faced indiscriminate aerial bombing, including incendiary attacks, nuclear attacks, and assaults on centers of culture/churches/schools, etc.

A change in the Geneva Conventions, beginning in 1949 were the results from the uproar of the fire bombing of Dresden, nuclear attacks on Japan, and other indiscriminate carpet bombing during WW II.

Therefore, in answer to your question, there were no specific treaties or conventions broken AT THE TIME of the bombings and therefore it was not a war crime, these prohibitions all came after the war.

Answer 5

The winner always sit the laws for the crimes ..

They say that the spoils of war go to the victors and that includes the opportunity to rewrite history from the victor’s point of view. This is particularly true of World War 2 where for the last fifty years one overall theme has dominated; namely that the allies were the good guys in contrast to the Germans who were Nazi war criminals. But was this really the case? Was the distinction so clear-cut or have we allowed Allied propagandists to reshape our view of history? Until recently anyone who questioned this standard interpretation was immediately labeled a “revisionist” or worse still a “Nazi”: as happened to British historian David Irving recently. Yet with the passage of time a new perspective is beginning to emerge, one that is not so clear-cut in its distinction between good and bad.

What about if Axis won ?? would you ever heared about Crimes of Axis in the war II ?

But there is alot of Crimes ..

You can Check here ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_war_crimes_during_World_War_II

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Dresden_in_World_War_II

and

http://www.natall.com/free-speech/fs9512d.html

and

http://www.answers.com/topic/allied-war-crimes-during-world-war-ii

and

http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?id=136

Hope that would help you ...


Best regards ..

Have a great day ..
Good luck .
..

Answer 6

The allies did commit war crimes in WW2, one of the worst being the Massacre at Katyn Forest in Poland, by Soviet troops.

About 18,000 Poles (8,000 of them being officers) were executed by the Soviets and buried in mass graves in the forest. It has never been clearly determined why the Soviets carried out this horrific act on POWs.

In 1943 the Nazis discover the graves and brought in the Red Cross to prove to the world that this was carried out by the Communists. It was one of the strangest investigations of the war, while the war was going on.

To this day the issue remains bitterly contested between Poles and Russians.

The highest U.S. officer to be investigated for potential "crimes against humanity" was Army Air Force General George Kenney. During the Battle of The Bismark Sea he ordered medium bombers to strafe Japanese soldiers in lifeboats and in the water after their transports were sunk. It is possible up to 2,000 Japanese died from this, but the issue never reach the tribunal level.

As with any conflict a number of troops (on the allied side as well) engaged in theft, rape, murder and other atrocities, but on a small scale and many were dealt with at that level.

Answer 7

I just read about a problem in Japan after the war. The allies told the Japanese to set up "comfort stations." The woman were often forced to work as prostitutes at these places.

Answer 8

the occupying Soviet troops did apparently go on a rampage, raping women and girls of all ages throughout Germany.

does that count ?

Answer 9

No, but the Japanese imprisonment camps would be one, they paid reparations for that and should have.

Answer 10

no