The history is written by the winners. 9 facts from World War II that the Allies should be ashamed of

The British and Americans committed the worst crimes during the war. They killed and raped, robbed and vented their genocidal tendencies. History doesn't remember it for one reason only. They won.

As always, all the items in the TOP10 ranking were based on the articles we publish. This time we decided to show how many bad deeds and negligence the Allied troops had on their conscience. More articles on WWII can be found HERE.

Allies should be ashamed that:

9. They were protecting war criminals

Walter Paul Schreiber was a professor of hygiene and bacteriology and a representative of the Reich Scientific Council for Combating Epidemics. During World War II, he dealt with plans to create biological weapons. He was also responsible for pseudo-medical experiments on prisoners of German concentration camps, often supervising them personally. And perhaps he would have been punished for his actions if he were not a scientist.

The prisoners of the Ravensbrück camp, apart from slave labor, also fell victim to inhuman medical experiments. Among their torturers was Walter Paul Schreiber (source:Bundesarchiv; lic. CC BY-SA 3.0).

After the war, it ended up in the hands of the Americans. In their occupation zone in Germany, he conducted research on drug interrogation of prisoners . He was rewarded for his achievements by bringing him to the USA and work at Randolph Air Force Base in Texas. And perhaps he would have had a pleasant time there until his retirement, if not for a Polish woman living in Boston, Janina Iwańska.

During the war, she was a prisoner of Ravensbrück and from there she remembered Schreiber. The doctor's past has come to light. More and more people demanded the trial of the criminal. Federal authorities were concerned that the truth about Operation Paperclip, in which hundreds of (useful) German criminals were brought to America, would be revealed. That is why in 1952 Schreiber was transported to Argentina, where he lived to a quiet old age (read more about this) .

8. They sunk a Polish submarine

In 1942, the crew of the Polish submarine ORP "Jastrząb" participated in the cover of the convoy sailing from Reykjavik to Murmansk. The mission did not look good from the beginning. The ship suffered from numerous failures. Due to the terrible weather conditions, the convoy's route was changed so that it ran through sectors supervised by the Allies. However, the commanders were not informed about the possibility of meeting their own submarines. Each detected unit was therefore treated as a U-boat.

British HMS Seagull, the minesweeper whose crew attacked ORP Hawk so viciously (source:Royal Navy, public domain).

Such was the fate of the "Hawk" when it came across two Allied ships on its way. Polish sailors let us know who they were, but the allies did not notice. And they started massive bombing. As a result of the explosion on the "Hawk" both engines stopped, chlorine leaked from the cracked batteries, and the hull began to leak.

The ascent or the crew's exit to the pier did not help. The Allies switched to rifles. It was only after a long time that the attackers were convinced that the Polish ship was not a German U-boat. Seeing their mistake, they started a rescue operation. The losses among the crew of the "Hawk" were serious: three Poles and two British were killed on the spot 16 people were injured. The ship itself was no longer usable and sank (read more about it) .

7. They committed numerous war crimes

After defeating the Germans in France, many soldiers felt that they had already done their duty and deserved a reward for a good job. Therefore, there were numerous cases of looting and trading in stolen goods. There was even a group working with the Corsican mafia. There were opinions among civilians that the behavior of German soldiers during the occupation was much more correct.

German soldiers captured by Canadians at Saint-Lambert-sur-Dive, August 21, 1944 (photo by Donald I. Grant from the resources of the Canadian Department of National Defense, source:public domain).

There was a group among American soldiers that wanted to get even with the Nazis. There were those who killed without remorse, claiming it was as simple as trampling an insect down. More than once the wounded were killed and prisoners killed. German paratroopers caught in American shoes were chased barefoot in a dozen or so degrees frost, after which frostbitten feet required a quick amputation.

The commanders were well aware of the crimes of the subordinates. Events that spoil the opinion of U.S. soldiers The Army was swept under the rug. As General Patton wrote: There were some unfortunate incidents, as a result of which the prisoners were killed. I hope we can cover it up . This statement referred to the massacre in the village of Chenogne, where about 60 captured German soldiers were murdered (read more on this topic) .

6. They ruined the city to bleed out on their capture

From the first hours of the Normandy landings, Caen was an important point on the way to the liberation of France. Meanwhile, the plan to capture the city was not going well. First, bombs were dropped on the village, turning it into a heavy pile of debris and killing over 800 people. After landing on the beach, it turned out that the soldiers lacked the appropriate equipment to break through the fortifications. The attack soon stopped in place.

Caen was almost razed to the ground as a result of a carpet raid on the night of June 5-6. The scale of the damage is perfectly illustrated by this photo, taken after the entry of the Allied forces into the city (photo from the Imperial War Museum collection, public domain).

After that, it didn't get any better. Once it was known that the leading attack on Caen had failed, the strategy was changed. The bet was on a double circling maneuver. It was to be led by two divisions:the 7th Panzer Division (the famous Desert Rats) on the right flank and the 51st Infantry Division (Highland) on the left.

The former, despite a good start, made a fatal mistake and sent the 22nd Brigade straight to the German tanks. The latter, used to fighting in the open territories of Africa, completely failed in Normandy. In the end, the Battle of Caen itself ended almost a month and a half later than expected and cost the Allies 50,000 killed and wounded soldiers (read more on that) .

5. They considered the Japanese subhuman

"To bring peace, we must murder all Japanese, right to your feet," was the opinion of half of those polled in a survey of American soldiers in 1943. In their opinion, the only way to victory was mass genocide against a nation of 70 million. Sounds familiar? Yes, Americans did have views that were deceptively similar to those instilled in Nazi youth in Germany.

Such a greedy Japanese beast was frightened on American propaganda posters ...

Behind all this was a government that convinced the public that the Japanese were contemptible subhumans. The goal was simple - to maintain an interest in the war and the motivation to fight. The inhabitants of Nippon were thus compared to wild beasts, pests or plague. They had to be eliminated. Many soldiers happily killed the Japanese. And during the Iwo Jima landing, the Yankees had the words "Pest Exterminator" on their helmets.

Even in America itself, anti-Japanese attitudes were evident. Time magazine always portrayed Japanese soldiers as chimpanzees swinging in trees with rifles in their hands. In the USA it was considered an act of patriotism to display signs "The season for the Japanese is open". "Licenses to kill yolks" were also being sold. And in 1945, national contempt for the enemy meant that President Truman could drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (read more on this) .

4. They senselessly destroyed the precious monument

During the offensive in Italy, the Allies encountered a German fortification line:the Gustav Line. It included the historic and unique Monte Cassino Monastery. Among the Allied soldiers there was a false belief that the building was manned by the Germans. Therefore, it was planned that the aviation would destroy the monastery, and then the infantry would drive out the remnants of the defenders. But as it usually happens in life, something must have gone wrong ...

This state was brought about by the historic monastery by the Allied bombing (photo Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-2005-0004 / Wittke, license CC BY-SA 3.0 de).

First of all, the accuracy of the shots of the Americans was such that they were hit, among others:the French Army Command Headquarters, located several kilometers from the target, and the command post more than 20 kilometers from Monte Cassino. Interestingly, the infantry attack did not materialize, as some troops thought it was a German raid.

The monastery was partially turned into ruin. To a chuckle of fate, it seemed to be in the hands of the Nazis. They took up the rubble almost immediately. Broken walls, underground corridors, rubble with walls five meters high - all this was a perfect defensive point. It was later used to massacre the Allied offensive (read more on that) .

3. They bombarded general Maczek's tankers in Normandy

It wasn't just at sea that the Allies were wrong about who's who. A similar situation befell the soldiers of General Stanisław Maczek in Normandy in 1944 . US bomber pilots did not enjoy a good reputation among the ground forces. More than once, they accidentally bombed Allied positions. In France, even a three-star American general fell victim to them!

Tankers of the 1st Armored Division still in England. They have no idea that in a few months they will have to fear not only the Germans, but also their own aviation (source:public domain).

On August 8, 1944, the Poles intended to go hand in hand with the Canadians, but earlier, the American pilots were to do their job. The first plane in the formation was hit by fire from the Nazi air defense and dropped bombs too early. Other units followed. It was unfortunate that the entire drop was over our troops ...

As a result, 315 Poles and Canadians were killed or injured. A week later, the situation repeated itself in an air raid on German fortifications in Quesnay Forest. This time RAF pilots misunderstood the signals and bombed Polish positions. 200 of our soldiers were killed or wounded and hundreds of vehicles (read more about it) were destroyed .

2. They made hell on earth in Tokyo

In the evening of March 9, 1945, 334 B-29 Superfortress bombers took off from airfields on the islands of Guam, Saipan and Tinian. They headed towards Tokyo, carrying a deadly shipment - incendiary bombs. 329 machines reached their destination. And then all hell began - a three-hour air raid during which nearly two thousand loads were dropped. The city turned into a fireball.

A photo of one of Tokyo's districts was taken on March 10, 1945. You can clearly see the scale of damage caused by a gigantic firestorm (source:public domain).

Due to the wooden buildings, the fire spread rapidly, absorbing everything in its path. It drained all the oxygen, so even those who managed to reach the few shelters died. Those seeking help on the bank of the Sumida River also suffered. The wind directed a wave of fire in their direction. The next morning the water was filled with charred corpses.

The official statement of the Japanese authorities spoke of over 83,000 killed and 40,000 wounded and 250,000 burned buildings. The damage was greater than later in Nagasaki. And the Tokyo fire brigade estimated the death toll at 97,000 killed and 125,000 wounded! In the following months, a similar fate befell Osaka, Kobe, Nagoya and Yokohama (read more about it) .

1. They raped almost like Red Army

They raped at least 14,000 French and 190,000 German women during World War II. Sołdaci under the red banner of the revolution? No, these are American boys under the starry flag. They believed that the liberated ladies out of gratitude would begin to fall into their arms themselves. And since that wasn't usually the case, some took matters into their own hands…

The Parisians run to greet the American soldiers. A real idyll. Often, however, the reality was completely different (source:fragment of the cover of Antony Beevor's book "Paris Liberated").

Even ladies walking with their husbands and children were harassed. If drunk soldiers did not find any willing women, they organized manhunts by raiding private homes. There were sexual murders. One of the ladies was stabbed to death for refusing to intercourse another was shot after refusing anal sex. It was even worse in Germany. By the end of the fighting, US military prosecutors were dealing with up to five hundred rape cases a week.

In one of the German villages soldiers raped eight women and girls, some in front of their parents . In one town, the American occupation authorities ordered cards with a list of residents, including their gender and age, to be displayed on the door of houses. Thanks to this, the perpetrators knew where the potential victims lived. Seventeen women were hospitalized as a result of sexual abuse. The youngest was seven, the oldest was sixty-nine (read more on this) .

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