Originally posted by kopiosatu:
During WWII, Hitler executed approximately 500,000 who tried to escape from the army or displayed cowardice.
On the allied side, they only executed one. And that was during the battle of the bulge where the number of deserters rose.
Execution results in loss of manpower definately, but do you think those executed are more of a liability to the force if they had been given a chance and lived?
Would you shoot a deserter or someone who's a coward?
A few points of note here.Your numbers did not include the Russia numbers which are extremely high since they did not care much for their soldiers.Those that Hitler executed most likely werent Germans but more of soldiers from the client states i.e romania,polish etc etc
Anyway to answer ur question yes having them wld be a liability...why?because they bring down morale anyway....and are likely to cost u the battle.As for Deserters?they have to be shot otherwise it means them going over to the enemy and killing u!