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109-528: Operation Biting , also known as the Bruneval Raid , was a British Combined Operations raid on a German coastal radar installation at Bruneval in northern France, during the Second World War , on the night of 27–28 February 1942 . Several of these installations were identified from Royal Air Force (RAF) aerial reconnaissance photographs during 1941, but the purpose and the nature of

218-505: A lazaret and prisoner camp for around 6,000 POWs who lived in the burial vaults and used the coffins for firewood. Food was scarce and prisoners resorted to eating horses, cats, dogs or even human flesh. The bad conditions inside the graveyard contributed to a city-wide epidemic after the battle. The extensive period of conflict during the American Revolutionary War and Napoleonic Wars (1793–1815), followed by

327-418: A war of aggression , murder , ill treatment, and deportation of individuals, and genocide during World War II. Most were executed or sentenced to life in prison for their crimes. The United States Military Code of Conduct was promulgated in 1955 via Executive Order 10631 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower to serve as a moral code for United States service members who have been taken prisoner. It

436-491: A captured officer surrendered his sword and gave his word as a gentleman in exchange for privileges. If he swore not to escape, he could gain better accommodations and the freedom of the prison. If he swore to cease hostilities against the nation who hold him captive, he could be repatriated or exchanged but could not serve against his former captors in a military capacity. Early historical narratives of captured European settlers, including perspectives of literate women captured by

545-420: A company for the operation. 'C' Company commanded by Frost was selected but the company had been so recently formed that Frost and many of his men had not yet completed their parachute jumping course. The level of security imposed on the planning for the raid was so high that when Major Frost was first briefed by a liaison officer from the headquarters of the 1st Airborne Division, he was informed that his company

654-481: A death rate of 25% (2,963), nearly equalled that of Andersonville. During the 19th century , there were increased efforts to improve the treatment and processing of prisoners. As a result of these emerging conventions, a number of international conferences were held, starting with the Brussels Conference of 1874, with nations agreeing that it was necessary to prevent inhumane treatment of prisoners and

763-644: A large part of human history, prisoners of war would most often be either slaughtered or enslaved . Early Roman gladiators could be prisoners of war, categorised according to their ethnic roots as Samnites , Thracians , and Gauls ( Galli ). Homer's Iliad describes Trojan and Greek soldiers offering rewards of wealth to opposing forces who have defeated them on the battlefield in exchange for mercy, but their offers are not always accepted; see Lycaon for example. Typically, victors made little distinction between enemy combatants and enemy civilians, although they were more likely to spare women and children. Sometimes

872-458: A large reception camp was established at Dover capable of housing 40,000 men, which could later be used for demobilisation . On 13 December 1918, the armistice was extended and the Allies reported that by 9 December 264,000 prisoners had been repatriated. A very large number of these had been released en masse and sent across Allied lines without any food or shelter. This created difficulties for

981-544: A large unit surrendered all its men. At Tannenberg 92,000 Russians surrendered during the battle. When the besieged garrison of Kaunas surrendered in 1915, 20,000 Russians became prisoners. Over half the Russian losses were prisoners as a proportion of those captured, wounded or killed. About 3.3 million men became prisoners. The German Empire held 2.5 million prisoners; Russia held 2.9 million, and Britain and France held about 720,000, mostly gained in

1090-440: A quality at least equal to that available to locals. The senior officer from each quadrangle was permitted to inspect the food as it was delivered to the prison to ensure it was of sufficient quality. Despite the generous supply and quality of food, some prisoners died of starvation after gambling away their rations. Most of the men held in the prison were low-ranking soldiers and sailors, including midshipmen and junior officers, with

1199-530: A quarter of the over 2 million POWs held there died. Nearly 375,000 of the 500,000 Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war taken by Russians perished in Siberia from smallpox and typhus . In Germany, food was short, but only 5 per cent died. The Ottoman Empire often treated prisoners of war poorly . Some 11,800 British soldiers, most from the British Indian Army , became prisoners after

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1308-457: A ransom. During his lifetime ( c.  570 – 632), Muhammad made it the responsibility of the Islamic government to provide food and clothing, on a reasonable basis, to captives, regardless of their religion; however, if the prisoners were in the custody of a person, then the responsibility was on the individual. On certain occasions where Muhammad felt the enemy had broken a treaty with

1417-425: A report on the circumstances of their capture and to ensure that they had done all they could to avoid capture. Each returning officer and man was given a message from King George V , written in his own hand and reproduced on a lithograph. The Queen joins me in welcoming you on your release from the miseries & hardships, which you have endured with so much patience and courage. During these many months of trial,

1526-732: A result. On 15 May 1942 a special supplement to the London Gazette carried the announcement of 19 decorations; Frost was awarded the Military Cross (MC), Cook the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) and Cox the Military Medal (MM); there were two other DSCs, two Distinguished Service Medals (DSM), one other MC, two further MMs and nine Mentions in Despatches (MiD). Wing Commander Pickard

1635-658: A second part of the Freya set-up, referred to in Enigma decrypts as " Würzburg ", but it was not until he was shown another set of RAF reconnaissance photographs in November 1941 that he learned the nature of Würzburg. The Würzburg radar device consisted of a parabolic antenna about 10 ft (3 m) in diameter, which worked in conjunction with Freya to locate British bombers and then direct Luftwaffe night fighters to attack them. The two systems complemented each other: Freya

1744-468: A small garrison. The Würzburg antenna was erected between the villa and the cliff. The radar station was permanently manned by Luftwaffe radar technicians and was surrounded by guard posts and approximately 30 guards; the buildings in the small enclosure housed about 100 German troops, including another detachment of technicians. A platoon of German infantry was stationed to the south in Bruneval, and

1853-578: A small number of privateers . About 100 senior officers and some civilians "of good social standing", mainly passengers on captured ships and the wives of some officers, were given parole outside the prison, mainly in Peterborough although some further afield. They were afforded the courtesy of their rank within English society. During the Battle of Leipzig both sides used the city's cemetery as

1962-541: A substantial enemy force in the buildings in the small enclosure near the villa, and this now opened fire on the raiding force after being alerted by the initial firefight, killing one of the airborne troops. The volume of fire rapidly increased, when enemy vehicles could be seen moving towards the villa from the nearby woods; this, in particular, worried Frost, as the radio sets the force had been issued failed to work, giving him no means of communication with his other detachments, including 'Nelson' who were tasked with clearing

2071-540: A successful raid against German-occupied territory was a welcome morale boost for the British public, and featured prominently in the British media for several weeks afterwards. The British Prime Minister , Winston Churchill , took a personal interest in the operation, and on 3 March assembled the War Cabinet to hear from Major Frost and several other officers who had participated in it. Several medals were awarded as

2180-407: A time to land on the beach, but this had never been satisfactorily achieved during training; instead, all six landing craft landed at the same time, with the covering troops in the landing craft opening fire on German soldiers gathering at the top of the cliff. This deviation from the original evacuation plan and the enemy fire caused considerable confusion on the beach; some of the landing craft left

2289-746: Is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict . The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war in custody for a range of legitimate and illegitimate reasons, such as isolating them from the enemy combatants still in the field (releasing and repatriating them in an orderly manner after hostilities), demonstrating military victory, punishing them, prosecuting them for war crimes , exploiting them for their labour , recruiting or even conscripting them as their own combatants, collecting military and political intelligence from them, or indoctrinating them in new political or religious beliefs. For

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2398-652: Is guided by Additional Protocol II , but insurgents are often treated as traitors , terrorists or criminals by government forces and are sometimes executed on spot or tortured. However, in the American Civil War , both sides treated captured troops as POWs presumably out of reciprocity , although the Union regarded Confederate personnel as separatist rebels. However, guerrillas and other irregular combatants generally cannot expect to receive benefits from both civilian and military status simultaneously. Under

2507-485: The Anglo-American War of 1812 , led to the emergence of a cartel system for the exchange of prisoners , even while the belligerents were at war. A cartel was usually arranged by the respective armed service for the exchange of like-ranked personnel. The aim was to achieve a reduction in the number of prisoners held, while at the same time alleviating shortages of skilled personnel in the home country. At

2616-862: The Czechoslovak Legion of Czechoslovak prisoners (from the Austro-Hungarian army) who were released and armed to fight on the side of the Entente, who briefly served as a military and diplomatic force during the Russian Civil War . At the end of the war in 1918 there were believed to be 140,000 British prisoners of war in Germany, including thousands of internees held in neutral Switzerland. The first British prisoners were released and reached Calais on 15 November. Plans were made for them to be sent via Dunkirk to Dover and

2725-588: The Dix–Hill Cartel was suspended, Confederate officials approached Union General Benjamin Butler, Union Commissioner of Exchange, about resuming the cartel and including the black prisoners. Butler contacted Grant for guidance on the issue, and Grant responded to Butler on 18 August 1864 with his now famous statement. He rejected the offer, stating in essence, that the Union could afford to leave their men in captivity,

2834-467: The Roman Empire , who were held in his town under appalling conditions and destined for a life of slavery, took the initiative in ransoming them by selling his church's precious gold and silver vessels and letting them return to their country. For this he was eventually canonised . According to legend, during Childeric 's siege and blockade of Paris in 464 the nun Geneviève (later canonised as

2943-548: The Royal Australian Navy who would be commanding the naval force intended to evacuate the company after the raid, as well as to the detachment of thirty-two officers and men from No. 12 Commando who would arrive in the landing craft and cover the company as it withdrew from the beach. Frost also met RAF Flight Sergeant C.W.H. Cox, who had volunteered to accompany C Company for the operation; as an expert radio electronics technician, it would be his job to locate

3052-494: The Third Geneva Convention , a combatant must be part of a chain of command , wear a "fixed distinctive marking, visible from a distance", bear arms openly, and have conducted military operations according to the laws and customs of war . (The Convention recognises a few other groups as well, such as "[i]nhabitants of a non-occupied territory, who on the approach of the enemy spontaneously take up arms to resist

3161-651: The Third Geneva Convention , prisoners of war (POW) must be: In addition, if wounded or sick on the battlefield, the prisoner will receive help from the International Committee of the Red Cross. When a country is responsible for breaches of prisoner of war rights, those accountable will be punished accordingly. An example of this is the Nuremberg and Tokyo Trials . German and Japanese military commanders were prosecuted for preparing and initiating

3270-403: The indigenous peoples of North America , exist in some number. The writings of Mary Rowlandson , captured in the chaotic fighting of King Philip's War , are an example. Such narratives enjoyed some popularity, spawning a genre of the captivity narrative , and had lasting influence on the body of early American literature, most notably through the legacy of James Fenimore Cooper 's The Last of

3379-591: The landing ships that were used in the various amphibious operations . The badge of Combined Operations was an Eagle over a submachine gun over an anchor , reflecting the three service arms; the Royal Air Force , the British Army and the Royal Navy . In 1941 the title of Director of Combined Operations was changed to Adviser Combined Operations. In 1942 the title of Adviser Combined Operations

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3488-432: The 11th and 12th centuries. Noblemen could hope to be ransomed ; their families would have to send to their captors large sums of wealth commensurate with the social status of the captive. Feudal Japan had no custom of ransoming prisoners of war, who could expect for the most part summary execution. In the 13th century the expanding Mongol Empire famously distinguished between cities or towns that surrendered (where

3597-704: The 13th-century Albigensian Crusade in Languedoc and the Northern Crusades in the Baltic region . When asked by a Crusader how to distinguish between the Catholics and Cathars following the projected capture (1209) of the city of Béziers , the papal legate Arnaud Amalric allegedly replied, " Kill them all, God will know His own ". Likewise, the inhabitants of conquered cities were frequently massacred during Christians' Crusades against Muslims in

3706-693: The 1949 Geneva Conventions , POWs acquires the status of protected persons , meaning it is a war crime by the detaining power to deprive the rights afforded to them by the Third Convention's provisions. Article 17 of the Third Geneva Convention states that POWs can only be required to give their name , date of birth , rank and service number (if applicable). The ICRC has a special role to play, with regards to international humanitarian law , in restoring and maintaining family contact in times of war , in particular concerning

3815-526: The 1st Air Troop led by Lt. Dennis Vernon. Six of the sappers would dismantle the radar device whilst four sappers would plant anti-tank mines to protect the force from counter attack. Information about the Bruneval radar installation was also gathered during this period, often with the help of the French Resistance , without whom detailed knowledge of the disposition of the German forces guarding

3924-571: The British or surpassing them due to heavy investment in the fledgling technology. By the beginning of the Second World War, Britain had devised effective radar systems, primarily through the work of Robert Watson-Watt , although much of the technology was still rudimentary and Watson-Watt and other scientists had failed to devise an effective night-defence system in time for the German night-time bombing of Britain during 1940. Another British scientist working on radar systems and techniques

4033-682: The Confederacy could not. After that about 56,000 of the 409,000 POWs died in prisons during the American Civil War , accounting for nearly 10% of the conflict's fatalities. Of the 45,000 Union prisoners of war confined in Camp Sumter , located near Andersonville, Georgia , 13,000 (28%) died. At Camp Douglas in Chicago, Illinois, 10% of its Confederate prisoners died during one cold winter month; and Elmira Prison in New York state, with

4142-540: The Continent, and he believed they came from a directional radar system. Within a few months of this discovery, Jones had identified several such radar systems, one of which was being used to detect British bombers; this was known as the " Freya-Meldung-Freya " array, named after the ancient Norse goddess . Jones was finally able to see concrete proof of the presence of the Freya system after being shown several mysterious objects visible in reconnaissance pictures taken by

4251-539: The Fleet Roger Keyes was the first director, from 17 July 1940 to 27 October 1941. He was replaced first by Lord Louis Mountbatten , who led the command for a year. He in turn was succeeded by Major General Robert Laycock (October 1943 – 1947). It comprised background staff whose job was to plan operations and to develop ideas and equipment to harass the enemy in any way possible. It also covered all those who worked with landing craft up to and including

4360-566: The French resistance movement who had participated in the previous reconnaissance in Bruneval was subsequently captured and executed by the Germans. A Frenchman and his fiancée were deported to concentration camps in Germany for providing help to surviving British paratroopers in their attempt to return to the UK. The success of the raid against the Bruneval installation had two important effects. First,

4469-536: The German garrison and capturing the installation after a brief firefight. An RAF technician with the force dismantled a Würzburg radar array and removed several key pieces, after which the force withdrew to the evacuation beach. The detachment assigned to clear the beach had initially failed to do so, but the German force guarding it was soon eliminated with the help of the main force. The raiding troops were picked up by landing craft , and transferred to several motor gunboats , which returned them to Britain. The raid

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4578-857: The Jordan Valley. Australian Flying Corps pilots and observers were captured in the Sinai Peninsula, Palestine and the Levant. One third of all Australian prisoners were captured on Gallipoli including the crew of the submarine AE2 which made a passage through the Dardanelles in 1915. Forced marches and crowded railway journeys preceded years in camps where disease, poor diet and inadequate medical facilities prevailed. About 25 per cent of other ranks died, many from malnutrition, while only one officer died. The most curious case came in Russia where

4687-686: The Mohicans . Some Native Americans continued to capture Europeans and use them both as labourers and bargaining chips into the 19th century; see for example John R. Jewitt , a sailor who wrote a memoir about his years as a captive of the Nootka people on the Pacific Northwest coast from 1802 to 1805. The earliest known purpose-built prisoner-of-war camp was established at Norman Cross in Huntingdonshire, England in 1797 to house

4796-542: The Muslims he endorsed the mass execution of male prisoners who participated in battles, as in the case of the Banu Qurayza in 627. The Muslims divided up the females and children of those executed as ghanima (spoils of war). In Europe, the treatment of prisoners of war became increasingly centralised, in the time period between the 16th and late 18th century. Whereas prisoners of war had previously been regarded as

4905-693: The Pentagon which has a "POW/Missing Personnel Office" and awards the Prisoner of War Medal . During World War I, about eight million men surrendered and were held in POW camps until the war ended. All nations pledged to follow the Hague rules on fair treatment of prisoners of war, and in general the POWs had a much higher survival rate than their peers who were not captured. Individual surrenders were uncommon; usually

5014-529: The RAF near Cap d'Antifer in Normandy – two circular emplacements in each of which was a rotating "mattress" antenna approximately 20 ft (6 m) wide. Having found proof of these Freya installations, Jones and the other scientists under his command could begin devising countermeasures against the system, and the RAF could begin to locate and destroy the installations themselves. Jones also found evidence of

5123-801: The Soviet Union's refusal to sign the Geneva Convention as a reason for not providing the necessities of life to Soviet POWs; and the Soviets also used Axis prisoners as forced labour. The Germans also routinely executed Allied commandos captured behind German lines per the Commando Order . To be entitled to prisoner-of-war status, captured persons must be lawful combatants entitled to combatant's privilege—which gives them immunity from punishment for crimes constituting lawful acts of war such as killing enemy combatants . To qualify under

5232-464: The Würzburg radar before it was destroyed by the Germans. Believing that surprise and speed were to be the essential requirements of any raid against the installation to ensure the radar was captured, Mountbatten saw an airborne assault as the only viable method. On 8 January 1942, he therefore contacted the headquarters of 1st Airborne Division and 38 Wing RAF , asking if they were able to conduct

5341-533: The Würzburg radar set, photograph it, and dismantle part of it for transportation back to Britain. Derek Garrard of Jones' team asked Jones to obtain an Army uniform and identification number for Cox, as he would be the object of special attention from the Germans if he was captured in Air Force uniform, but the War Office were obdurate. Accompanying the strike force was a 10-man section of Royal Engineers of

5450-426: The air, making them easier to attack prior to Operation Overlord . The Telecommunications Research Establishment , where much of the Bruneval equipment was analysed and where British radar systems were designed and tested, was moved further inland from Swanage on the southern coast of England to Malvern , to ensure that it would not become the target of a reprisal raid by German airborne forces. The original model of

5559-505: The aircraft and aircrews of 51 Squadron. Despite the aircrews having no previous experience in dropping parachutists, these exercises proved to be successful. The company's working-up was aided by the creation of a scale model of the radar installation and the surrounding buildings being built by the Photographic Interpretation Unit . During this period, Major Frost was introduced to Commander F. N. Cook of

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5668-631: The area around the radar station, used to brief troops taking part in the assault, is preserved in the Parachute Regiment and Airborne Forces Museum , at the Imperial War Museum Duxford . Combined Operations (United Kingdom) The command used air and naval units to deliver the Commandos to various targets, and then recover them. Thus, it was a combined arms coordination and command structure. Admiral of

5777-523: The baggage and equipment of the army, and because the French were attacking again and Henry was afraid that they would break through and free the prisoners who would rejoin the fight against the English. In the later Middle Ages a number of religious wars aimed to not only defeat but also to eliminate enemies. Authorities in Christian Europe often considered the extermination of heretics and heathens desirable. Examples of such wars include

5886-410: The beach and attacked the machine-gun post from the flank. By this time it was 02:15 but there was no sign of the naval force that was to evacuate the airborne troops. Frost ordered 'Nelson' to guard the inland approaches to the beach and then fired off an emergency signal flare ; soon after that, the naval force was seen approaching. The original plan for the operation had called for two landing craft at

5995-454: The beach over-crowded, whilst others left half-empty. However, the radar equipment, German prisoners and all but six of the raiding force were embarked and transferred to motor gunboats for transport back to Britain. On the return journey, Frost learned that the naval force had received no signals apart from the signal flare, and had spent much of the time hiding from a German naval patrol that had nearly discovered them. The journey back to Britain

6104-489: The city's patron saint) pleaded with the Frankish king for the welfare of prisoners of war and met with a favourable response. Later, Clovis I ( r.  481–511 ) liberated captives after Genevieve urged him to do so. King Henry V 's English army killed many French prisoners of war after the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. This was done in retaliation for the French killing of the boys and other non-combatants handling

6213-409: The company into five groups of forty men for the raid, each named after a famous Royal Navy admiral: ' Nelson ', ' Jellicoe ', ' Hardy ', ' Drake ' and ' Rodney '. 'Nelson' would clear and secure German positions defending the evacuation beach, whilst 'Jellicoe', 'Hardy' and 'Drake' would capture the radar site, villa and the enclosure. 'Rodney' was the reserve formation, placed between the radar site and

6322-515: The company. The company spent time on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire and then travelled to Inveraray in Scotland where they underwent specialised training on Loch Fyne , practising night embarkations on landing craft to prepare the company for evacuation by sea after raiding the radar installation. After this, the unit returned to Wiltshire and began carrying out practice parachute drops with

6431-520: The criteria of Additional Protocol I. Therefore, they fall under the category of unlawful combatants , or more properly they are not combatants. Captured soldiers who do not get prisoner of war status are still protected like civilians under the Fourth Geneva Convention . The criteria are applied primarily to international armed conflicts. The application of prisoner of war status in non-international armed conflicts like civil wars

6540-506: The designated drop zone near the installation. The drop was an almost total success, with the majority of the raiding force landing on the edge of the drop zone; however, half of the 'Nelson' detachment landed two miles short of the DZ. Once the other detachments had gathered their equipment and oriented themselves, they moved off to undertake their arranged tasks. 'Jellicoe', 'Hardy' and 'Drake' encountered no enemy opposition as they moved towards

6649-417: The designation "Prisoner of War" for captured American personnel with "Missing-Captured". A January 2008 directive states that the reasoning behind this is since "Prisoner of War" is the international legal recognised status for such people there is no need for any individual country to follow suit. This change remains relatively unknown even among experts in the field and "Prisoner of War" remains widely used in

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6758-457: The early rescue of our gallant Officers & Men from the cruelties of their captivity has been uppermost in our thoughts. We are thankful that this longed for day has arrived, & that back in the old Country you will be able once more to enjoy the happiness of a home & to see good days among those who anxiously look for your return. While the Allied prisoners were sent home at the end of

6867-470: The enemy (beyond identifying themselves, that is, "name, rank, serial number"), receiving special favours or parole, or otherwise providing their enemy captors aid and comfort. Since the Vietnam War , the official U.S. military term for enemy POWs is EPW (Enemy Prisoner of War). This name change was introduced in order to distinguish between enemy and U.S. captives. In 2000, the U.S. military replaced

6976-519: The equipment was not known. Some British scientists believed that these stations were connected with successful German attacks on RAF bombers conducting bombing raids against targets in Occupied Europe , resulting in severe losses of pilots and bombers. The scientists requested that one of these installations be raided and the technology it possessed be studied and, if possible, extracted and brought back to Britain for further examination. Due to

7085-406: The evacuation beach. Flight Sergeant Cox and several sappers arrived at this time and proceeded to dismantle the radar equipment, placing the pieces on specially designed trolleys. Having secured the radar equipment and under heavy enemy fire, Major Frost gave the order for the three detachments to withdraw to the evacuation beach; it became apparent, however, that the beach had not been secured by

7194-414: The evacuation landing craft grounded 60 yards (180 ft) offshore and could not be shifted despite the efforts of the crews and troops. The raid was postponed for several days after the 23 February rehearsal due to weather conditions, but on 27 February the weather proved to be ideal, with clear skies and good visibility for the aircraft of 51 Squadron, and a full moon which would provide illumination for

7303-553: The evacuation of the raiding force. The naval force under Commander Cook departed from Britain during the afternoon and the Whitley transport aircraft carrying C Company took off from RAF Thruxton in the evening. The aircraft crossed the English Channel without incident, but as they reached the French coast they came under heavy anti-aircraft fire; however, none of them were hit, and they successfully delivered C Company to

7412-421: The exchange of prisoners would be carried out between warring states. Another such treaty was the 1648 Peace of Westphalia , which ended the Thirty Years' War . This treaty established the rule that prisoners of war should be released without ransom at the end of hostilities and that they should be allowed to return to their homelands. There also evolved the right of parole , French for "discourse", in which

7521-419: The extensive coastal defences erected by the Germans to protect the installation from a seaborne raid, the British believed that a commando raid from the sea would suffer heavy losses and give sufficient time for the enemy to destroy the installation. Officials decided that an airborne assault followed by seaborne evacuation would be the most practicable way to surprise the garrison of the installation, seize

7630-420: The five-month Siege of Kut , in Mesopotamia , in April 1916. Many were weak and starved when they surrendered and 4,250 died in captivity. During the Sinai and Palestine campaign 217 Australian and unknown numbers of British, New Zealand and Indian soldiers were captured by Ottoman forces. About 50 per cent of the Australian prisoners were light horsemen including 48 missing believed captured on 1 May 1918 in

7739-477: The increasing number of prisoners from the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars . The average prison population was about 5,500 men. The lowest number recorded was 3,300 in October 1804 and 6,272 on 10 April 1810 was the highest number of prisoners recorded in any official document. Norman Cross Prison was intended to be a model depot providing the most humane treatment of prisoners of war. The British government went to great lengths to provide food of

7848-425: The installation would have been impossible. This information was gathered by Gilbert Renault , known to the British by the code-name 'Rémy', and several members of his resistance network. The installation was composed of two distinct areas; a villa approximately 100 yards (91 m) from the edge of a cliff which contained the radar station itself, and an enclosure containing several smaller buildings which contained

7957-454: The invading forces, without having had time to form themselves into regular armed units".) Thus, uniforms and badges are important in determining prisoner-of-war status under the Third Geneva Convention. Under Additional Protocol I , the requirement of a distinctive marking is no longer included. Francs-tireurs , militias , insurgents , terrorists , saboteurs , mercenaries , and spies generally do not qualify because they do not fulfill

8066-439: The main likely enemy approach to block any counterattack. It was considered that the combination of a full moon for visibility, and a rising tide to allow the landing craft to manoeuvre in shallow water, was vital for the success of the raid, which narrowed the possible dates to four days between 24 and 27 February. On 23 February, a final rehearsal exercise took place, which proved to be a failure; despite ideal weather conditions,

8175-469: The operation. Training for the raid was begun immediately, but encountered several problems. 38 Wing was a new unit still in the process of formation, so No. 51 Squadron RAF under Wing Commander Percy Charles Pickard was selected to provide the aircraft and aircrew needed for the operation, although Group Captain Nigel Norman of 38 Wing would remain in overall command. Another problem encountered

8284-600: The period just before the Armistice in 1918. The US held 48,000. The most dangerous moment for POWs was the act of surrender, when helpless soldiers were sometimes killed or mistakenly shot down. Once prisoners reached a POW camp conditions were better (and often much better than in World War II), thanks in part to the efforts of the International Red Cross and inspections by neutral nations. There

8393-541: The population was spared but required to support the conquering Mongol army) and those that resisted (in which case the city was ransacked and destroyed , and all the population killed). In Termez , on the Oxus : "all the people, both men and women, were driven out onto the plain, and divided in accordance with their usual custom, then they were all slain". The Aztecs warred constantly with neighbouring tribes and groups, aiming to collect live prisoners for sacrifice . For

8502-411: The private property of the captor, captured enemy soldiers became increasingly regarded as the property of the state. The European states strove to exert increasing control over all stages of captivity, from the question of who would be attributed the status of prisoner of war to their eventual release. The act of surrender was regulated so that it, ideally, should be legitimised by officers, who negotiated

8611-507: The purpose of a battle, if not of a war, was to capture women, a practice known as raptio ; the Rape of the Sabines involved, according to tradition, a large mass-abduction by the founders of Rome. Typically women had no rights , and were held legally as chattels . In the fourth century AD, Bishop Acacius of Amida , touched by the plight of Persian prisoners captured in a recent war with

8720-443: The radar array also allowed British scientists to conclude that they would have to deploy a countermeasure that had recently been developed, code-named Window . Examination of the Würzburg array showed that it was impervious to being jammed by conventional means used by the British during the early years of the conflict; thus Window would have to be deployed against German radars. The effectiveness of Window against Würzburg radar arrays

8829-449: The raid after a brief debate. Having received permission to conduct the raid, Mountbatten and his staff studied the Bruneval installation and its defences, rapidly concluding that due to the extensive coastal defences in the area around the installation, it was too well-guarded to permit a seaborne commando raid. They considered that such a raid would result in high casualties among the attacking troops and would not be fast enough to capture

8938-416: The raid was the technical knowledge that British scientists gained. Examination of the components of the radar array showed that it was of a modular design that aided maintenance and made fixing faults far simpler than on similar British radar models. This was confirmed during the interrogation of the captured German technician, who proved to be less well trained than his British counterparts. Examination of

9047-540: The raid, and reference to the Yorks TV 1977 documentary film on the raid which includes interviews with Frost, Cox, Nagel and other survivors, and another film held by the IWM , London made in 1982) The villa was soon cleared of enemy troops once more, and when Frost returned to the beach, he found that the machine-gun nest had been destroyed by the mis-dropped troops of 'Nelson'; avoiding other enemy positions, they had reached

9156-430: The raid. The division's commander, Major-General Frederick Browning , was particularly enthusiastic, as a successful operation would be an excellent morale boost to the airborne troops under his command, as well as a good demonstration of their value. The two commanders believed that training by airborne troops and aircrews could be completed by the end of February when there would be suitable meteorological conditions for

9265-457: The re-consecration of Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in 1487, "between 10,000 and 80,400 persons" were sacrificed. During the early Muslim conquests of 622–750, Muslims routinely captured large numbers of prisoners. Aside from those who converted, most were ransomed or enslaved . Christians captured during the Crusades were usually either killed or sold into slavery if they could not pay

9374-424: The receiving Allies and many ex-prisoners died from exhaustion. The released POWs were met by cavalry troops and sent back through the lines in lorries to reception centres where they were refitted with boots and clothing and dispatched to the ports in trains. Upon arrival at the receiving camp the POWs were registered and "boarded" before being dispatched to their own homes. All commissioned officers had to write

9483-457: The right of prisoners of war and internees to send and receive letters and cards (Geneva Convention (GC) III, art. 71 and GC IV, art. 107). However, nations vary in their dedication to following these laws, and historically the treatment of POWs has varied greatly. During World War II, Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany (towards Soviet POWs and Western Allied commandos) were notorious for atrocities against prisoners of war. The German military used

9592-469: The start of the American Civil War a system of paroles operated. Captives agreed not to fight until they were officially exchanged. Meanwhile, they were held in camps run by their own army where they were paid but not allowed to perform any military duties. The system of exchanges collapsed in 1863 when the Confederacy refused to exchange black prisoners. In the late summer of 1864, a year after

9701-423: The surrender of their whole unit. Soldiers whose style of fighting did not conform to the battle line tactics of regular European armies, such as Cossacks and Croats , were often denied the status of prisoners of war. In line with this development the treatment of prisoners of war became increasingly regulated in international treaties, particularly in the form of the so-called cartel system, which regulated how

9810-579: The systems or at least the more vital pieces of technology of which the system was composed. One site had recently been sighted by an RAF reconnaissance Spitfire from the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit during a flight over part of the French English Channel coast near Le Havre . The site was found on a clifftop immediately north of the village of Bruneval, 12 mi (19 km) north of Le Havre, and

9919-404: The technology intact, and minimise casualties to the raiding force. On the night of 27 February, after a period of intense training and several delays due to poor weather, a company of airborne troops under the command of Major John Frost parachuted into France a few miles from the installation. The main force assaulted the villa in which the radar equipment was kept, killing several members of

10028-496: The treatment of prisoners of war in detail. These provisions were further expanded in the 1929 Geneva Convention on the Prisoners of War and were largely revised in the Third Geneva Convention in 1949. Article 4 of the Third Geneva Convention protects captured military personnel , some guerrilla fighters, and certain civilians . It applies from the moment a prisoner is captured until his or her release or repatriation. Under

10137-533: The under-strength 'Nelson' detachment when a German machine gun opened fire on the airborne troops, severely wounding the company sergeant major . Frost ordered 'Rodney' and the available men of 'Nelson' to clear the defences, whilst he led the other three detachments back to the villa, which had been reoccupied by enemy troops. (see also chapter in 'Fighting Back' by Martin Sugarman on the role of German Jewish refugee Commando and Paratrooper Peter Nagel aka Newman, on

10246-475: The use of weapons causing unnecessary harm. Although no agreements were immediately ratified by the participating nations, work was continued that resulted in new conventions being adopted and becoming recognised as international law that specified that prisoners of war be treated humanely and diplomatically. Chapter II of the Annex to the 1907 Hague Convention IV – The Laws and Customs of War on Land covered

10355-400: The villa housing the radar installation, and after surrounding the villa Frost gave the order to open fire with grenades and automatic fire. One German guard was killed as he returned fire from an upstairs window, and two more were taken prisoner by the airborne troops; upon interrogation, the prisoners revealed that the majority of the garrison were stationed further inland. There still remained

10464-524: Was R. V. Jones , who had been appointed in 1939 as Britain's first scientific intelligence officer, and had spent the first years of the conflict researching how advanced German radar was in comparison to Britain, convincing doubters that the Germans had radar. By examining leaked German documents, crashed Luftwaffe bombers and Enigma decryptions , and through German prisoner of war interrogations, Jones discovered that high-frequency radio signals were being transmitted across Britain from somewhere on

10573-494: Was a long-range early-warning radar system but lacked precision, and Würzburg had a much shorter range but was far more precise. Würzburg FuSE 62 D, also had the advantage of being much smaller than the Freya system and easier to manufacture in the quantities needed by the Luftwaffe to defend German territory. To neutralise the Würzburg system by developing countermeasures against it, Jones and his team needed to study one of

10682-742: Was also subsequently awarded a bar to his Distinguished Service Order , on 26 May. The success of the raid also prompted the War Office to expand the existing British airborne forces, setting up the Airborne Forces Depot and Battle School in Derbyshire in April 1942, and creating the Parachute Regiment as well as converting a number of infantry battalions to airborne battalions in August 1942. The second and most important result of

10791-788: Was changed to Chief of Combined Operations. The department existed until 1947 but later re-emerged under a new name in 1951, as the Amphibious Warfare Headquarters . Operations included: The Attack on the Iron Coast (film) depicts an account of Allied Combined Operations Headquarters commandos executing a daring raid on the German-occupied French coast during the Second World War . 52°43′52″N 1°43′23″W  /  52.7311°N 1.7230°W  / 52.7311; -1.7230 Prisoner of war A prisoner of war ( POW )

10900-404: Was channelled into RAF Bomber Command and the strategic bombing offensive against Germany . However, bomber losses on each raid began to increase during 1941, which British intelligence concluded was due to German use of advanced radar equipment. The British and Germans had been competing in radar technology for nearly a decade at this point, with the German technology often at the same level as

11009-626: Was confirmed by a raid conducted by RAF Bomber Command on 24 July 1943 against Hamburg ( Operation Gomorrah ); the bombers used Window, all of the radar arrays in Hamburg were blinded and their operators confused, unable to distinguish between the radar signature of a real bomber and several pieces of Window giving off a similar signature. An unexpected bonus of the Bruneval raid was the Germans' efforts to improve defences at Würzburg stations and prevent similar attacks. The radars were surrounded by rings of barbed wire which increased their visibility from

11118-611: Was created primarily in response to the breakdown of leadership and organisation, specifically when U.S. forces were POWs during the Korean War . When a military member is taken prisoner, the Code of Conduct reminds them that the chain of command is still in effect (the highest ranking service member eligible for command, regardless of service branch, is in command), and requires them to support their leadership. The Code of Conduct also requires service members to resist giving information to

11227-454: Was entirely successful. The airborne troops suffered relatively few casualties, and the pieces of the radar they brought back, along with a captured German radar technician, allowed British scientists to understand enemy advances in radar and to create countermeasures to neutralize them. After the end of the Battle of France and the evacuation of British troops from Dunkirk during Operation Dynamo , much of Britain's war production and effort

11336-535: Was much harsh treatment of POWs in Germany, as recorded by the American ambassador (prior to America's entry into the war), James W. Gerard, who published his findings in "My Four Years in Germany". Even worse conditions are reported in the book "Escape of a Princess Pat" by the Canadian George Pearson. It was particularly bad in Russia, where starvation was common for prisoners and civilians alike;

11445-484: Was responsible for manning the defences guarding the evacuation beach; these included a strongpoint near the beach as well as pillboxes and machine gun nests on the top of the cliff overlooking the beach. The beach was not land mined and had only sporadic barbed-wire defences, but it was patrolled regularly; a mobile reserve of infantry was believed to be available at one hour's notice and stationed some distance inland. Based on this information, Frost decided to divide

11554-486: Was the most accessible German radar site that had been found so far by the British; several other installations were further inland and others were as far away as Romania and Bulgaria. A request for a raid on the Bruneval site to capture a Würzburg system was passed on to Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten , the commander of Combined Operations. Mountbatten, in turn, took the proposal to the Chiefs of Staff Committee , who approved

11663-422: Was the state of training of the unit of airborne troops chosen to raid the installation. During this period, the 1st Airborne Division was composed of only two parachute battalions, of which only one ( 1st Parachute Battalion ), was fully trained. Browning, wishing to keep the 1st Parachute Battalion intact for any larger operation the division might be selected for, ordered the 2nd Parachute Battalion to provide

11772-576: Was to take part in an airborne warfare demonstration for the War Cabinet. He was also informed that C Company would be divided into four sections for the exercise, which was contrary to a plan Frost had devised for the exercise and confused him. It was only after Frost raised several objections with a more senior officer at headquarters that he was informed of the intended raid, after which the Major dropped his objections and turned his attention to training

11881-445: Was uneventful, with the force being escorted by four destroyers and a flight of Spitfires . The paratroopers lost two killed, eight wounded and six men who did not return to the boats. They were later taken prisoner by the Germans. German reports were found after the war, which made the German loss as follows: the army: two killed, one seriously wounded, two missing. Luftwaffe : three killed, one wounded, three missing. A member of

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