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Another fun one is when the Nazis built a Decoy Airfield to get the Allies to waste time destroying or capturing it as opposed to real high value operations. Due to inability to complete projects on time, a long running issue with the Nazis, the Allies had plenty of time to catch on to the ruse and dropped a single wooden bomb on it.
I know funny and that is funny
Dressing up as the enemy is actually a war crime.
Not back then it wouldn't be, though, if we take the veracity of the story at face value. The inclusion of perfidy (bad-faith deception, such as dressing up as a civilian or opposing force) as a banned act within the Geneva Conventions was only adopted in 1977, under articles 37 and 39 of Additional Protocol I.
Edit: And even today, Article 39 exempts naval engagements specifically from that provision when it comes to flying the wrong colors with intent to deceive.
It's a fashion crime if your enemy's the British Beefeaters.
I think all military companies should keep their formal uniforms from whever time period they were formed. Imagine the photos from military banquets or 4th of July celebrations if one company is in WW2 era formal wear, another is Civil War, and another is from the Napoleonic era! It would be so cool to watch
What? Committing war crimes? Germany? Preposterous!
WWI was so famous for everyone fighting a calm and reasonable war with no war crimes
Reasonable amounts of condiments in the air
They were serving so many hot dogs that they have to aerosolize the mustard.
They were so progressive about women having a safe space to congregate they introduced a miles-long no-mans-land in France.
To be fair: A lot of things that are war crimes today were declared as such specifically because of WWI. Meaning that they weren't war crimes when they were committed during the war. Specifically chemical agents (mustard gas and friends) had never been seen before, so there obviously was no treaty banning their use until after the fact.
war crimes are whatever the dominate military power says it is the other guy is doing
Only if you engage under the enemy's colors. Otherwise it's a ruse of war, and legitimate.
Then thank the British for stopping this potential war crime.
It's war, and when you are being invaded by greedy bastards. There are no war crimes.
I thought the Germans were the greedy bastards?
Yes, in that case yes. But in current global situations.
If I'm not mistaken the Carmania was a civilian ship that the British outfit with weapons to protect convoys and the germans chose the Carmania because it was a civilian ship so it ended up being a battle between two "civilian" ships with hidden cannons.
Up until the end of WW2, it was quite common to requisition suitable civilian ships into the navy and outfit them as auxiliary cruisers. (often passenger liners due to their high speeds and long range) It wasn't uncommon for governments to subsidise suitable ships under the condition they were already built with preparations for such a conversion (mostly mounting points for a number of cruiser calibre guns).
Those auxiliary cruisers were then often put to use as convoy escorts and for commerce raiding, (Converted passenger ships being especially attractive in this capacity due to their capability of carrying extra personnel to use as prize crews to take over enemy shipping with useful cargo rather than sinking it) freeing up real warships for other tasks.
"the British seeing it's own ship coming at it" hurts my brain in so many ways. The wrong "it's". Using "it's" and "it" in relation to a plural formal noun. Could be fixed either by adding the word "navy" and using the correct "its" or by replacing "it's" and "it" with "their" and "them".
Don't allow there mistakes too ruin you're day.
You mean are day
dei
He will turn blue any minute now..
If you want to know more the Drachnifel channel on YouTube has a good episode on it.
I'm getting Enemy Territory flashbacks...