What was the punishment for desertion during WW2?
Wow that is a broad question – – – define desertion. Seriously. Penalties varied from Nation to Nation and were often colored by circumstance or chance rather than rules & regulations. Most often, time in the stockade, a reduction in rank, but there were many instances especially among the Allies when a ‘blind eye’ was turned upon the culprit especially if they returned on their own, making easy excuses about crowded trains or other complications. The only American executed for desertion during WWTwo was Private Eddie Slovak and much of that was political. The Germans and the Russians though made a fetish out of executing their own troops and towards the end of WWTwo when Germany needed all the fighting men it could muster the NAZIS festooned trees with solders executed for desertion, often their mutilated bodies were decorated with signs stating that they had been disloyal to Hitler and Germany. Once again, have to state that desertion could most often be ‘resolved’ by carefully exami
