POW factor

[Ive]

Lets say ground combat occurs on a island, 20000 vs 5000 troops. Those 5000 got overrun and surrender. Unless you are able to transport them of the island or get your firing squad busy that's 5000 mouths to feed. Don't you think? It would be adequate to transform that unit into POW unit which spend supplies and gets killed by bombing or by attack on a transport ship.

[DuckofTindalos]

Do we really need to complicate this game FURTHER?!?!?

[dpstafford]

ORIGINAL: Ive

Lets say ground combat occurs on a island, 20000 vs 5000 troops. Those 5000 got overrun and surrender. Unless you are able to transport them of the island or get your firing squad busy that's 5000 mouths to feed. Don't you think? It would be adequate to transform that unit into POW unit which spend supplies and gets killed by bombing or by attack on a transport ship.

With all the detail already in the game, this suggestion seems like a bridge too far. Way too far. Perhaps even silly.

[Ive]

Well, it was just a suggestion. Anyway it's the detail which makes a game special.

[Bradley7735]

I think we should have the Awa Maru modeled as well. I think it was the Awa Maru. Sometime in '44, the Red Cross asked Japan to send some medical and food supplies to POW's in the NEI or New Guinea. The Japanese did send the supplies, but loaded the ship with essential war materials (along with some POW's) for the return trip to Japan. An unfortunate US skipper sank the ship in heavy fog. It ruined his career, but he did get evidence of the ship's cargo.

Anway, we need to have the Awa Maru modeled. That way, the Japan player can send 4 tons of food to New Guinea, and return with 4,000 tons of resources. And the ship could be virtually immune to US subs.

(I'm being sarcastic)

[treespider]

ORIGINAL: Ive

Lets say ground combat occurs on a island, 20000 vs 5000 troops. Those 5000 got overrun and surrender. Unless you are able to transport them of the island or get your firing squad busy that's 5000 mouths to feed. Don't you think? It would be adequate to transform that unit into POW unit which spend supplies and gets killed by bombing or by attack on a transport ship.

When the Allies surrendered...the Japanese let them starve...

And when the Japanese surrendered...er....well they didn't surrender. BANZAI!

[Gem35]

Reminds me of that movie "to end all wars" . Very disturbing fact-based account of PoW's in Burma. After seeing how they treated prisoners of war, my sympathy for Nagasaki and Hiroshima was minimized a bit more.

[Lemurs!]

I do not want to defend Japan too much but they did not let them starve per se.

Japan attempted to give POWs the same ration Japanese soldiers received but most Allied soldiers were larger and required more calories to survive.

Mike

[bradfordkay]

That argument didn't work for Captain Wurtz either.

[DuckofTindalos]

ORIGINAL: Lemurs!

I do not want to defend Japan too much but they did not let them starve per se.

No, no, sometimes the Japanese ATE their prisoners.

[Buck Beach]

What type of ship is an ATE that the Japanese put the prisoners on. [:D][:D][:D]

[Bombur]

-A curiosity: what was the overall mortality ratio for POW´s under Japanese responsability?

[Bombur]

-Well, got my informations....

Although the Imperial government had pledged to treat prisoners of war (POWs) with care and respect, prisoners were treated brutally while medical treatment for sick prisoners was either nonexistent, or, at best, primitive, apathetic, or indifferent. The consequences of this policy of mistreatment are revealed by a comparison of mortality rates in Japanese POW camps with those in Europe. The death rate in Japanese camps was at least 27 percent. In Europe the figure was roughly 4 percent.

-The mortality rate of Soviet POW´s under German custody was, btw higher (60%). I don´t want to start a flame war, btw, neither to deny the well documented Japanese war crimes, but to what extent these higher mortality rates are a result of poor logistic situation and to what extent Japanese soldiers suffered the same fate?

[Ive]

Read the book "King Rat" by James Clavell.

[Bradley7735]

ORIGINAL: Bombur

-Well, got my informations....

Although the Imperial government had pledged to treat prisoners of war (POWs) with care and respect, prisoners were treated brutally while medical treatment for sick prisoners was either nonexistent, or, at best, primitive, apathetic, or indifferent. The consequences of this policy of mistreatment are revealed by a comparison of mortality rates in Japanese POW camps with those in Europe. The death rate in Japanese camps was at least 27 percent. In Europe the figure was roughly 4 percent.

-The mortality rate of Soviet POW´s under German custody was, btw higher (60%). I don´t want to start a flame war, btw, neither to deny the well documented Japanese war crimes, but to what extent these higher mortality rates are a result of poor logistic situation and to what extent Japanese soldiers suffered the same fate?

A guy named Bradley (can't remember his first name, but I think it's James) wrote a book recently about US airmen shot down over Chichi Jima. The author said that at the end of hostilities, Japan returned approx 28,000 US service men that they held as POW's. They also returned 56 Chinese service men.

If Bradley's numbers are correct, then you had about a 0% chance of surviving the war if you were Chinese and taken prisoner. He goes into some detail about atrocities from both sides. But, using Chinese prisoners as fodder to "toughen" up Japanese officers by beheading them is one aspect of the book that's pretty vivid in my mind.

[Bombur]

These numbers being correct it seems pretty clear there was a deliberate policy of extermination of Chinese prisioners, however it seems the treatment of Western prisoners were somewhat less brutal. The smallest death rate was seen among Dutch prisioners (6%). Of course a small death rate does not imply that the prisioners were´n´t submitted to non lethal violence.

[treespider]

ORIGINAL: treespider

ORIGINAL: Ive

Lets say ground combat occurs on a island, 20000 vs 5000 troops. Those 5000 got overrun and surrender. Unless you are able to transport them of the island or get your firing squad busy that's 5000 mouths to feed. Don't you think? It would be adequate to transform that unit into POW unit which spend supplies and gets killed by bombing or by attack on a transport ship.

When the Allies surrendered...the Japanese let them starve...

And when the Japanese surrendered...er....well they didn't surrender. BANZAI!

Of course I took some poetic license with this and exagerated just to make a point. Between aircraft altitudes, attack settings, engine build rates and trying to decide between a PC or PG to include in a Task Force....I don't think we need to worry about feeding POW's