Many types of troops took part in the Great Patriotic War on the side of the USSR and Germany. From simple infantry to special forces, pilots, sailors and paratroopers. In the war, everything happened, and sometimes the soldiers were captured. Having found themselves in the power of the enemy, they could not be sure of their future and could only rely on his mercy. However, there were categories of fighters who could not count on leniency.
Snipers
During the Great Patriotic War, the sniper movement reached a new level. In urban combat and on rough terrain, one well-aimed shot at the commander could decapitate and force an entire unit to retreat. There is even a saying among the people that describes the effectiveness of the actions of the shooter at the front line: "One sniper is able to solve the problem of the enemy's offensive, two - the outcome of the battle, and three or four snipers can reverse the course of the war."
The snipers had their advantages: they did not have to go on the attack with everyone, they lay in shelters and calmly fired off enemy officers and heavy weapons crews. But besides the pluses, there was one big minus in their specialty - they were never taken prisoner.
The roots of this hatred lay in the way snipers worked. If an ordinary infantryman was forced to kill enemies in the heat of battle, because there was no other choice, then the sniper's craft was “unsportsmanlike” - they lay in ambush and waited for hours until someone inadvertently looked out of the trench to shoot him. Even among their own soldiers, the attitude towards snipers can be described as at least “cautious”.
Flamethrowers
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No less hatred than snipers, flamethrowers were used by the enemy among the troops. They were not taken prisoner either. Here the reason is obvious - the weapons they used brought the enemy a cruel death.
From the memoirs of the flamethrower Nikolai Semenovich Vokhmintsev, born in 1926: “Flamethrower mixtures could give temperatures up to 1500 degrees. When it hit a person, he, even if he survived, remained terribly crippled. Therefore, we always carried a pistol with us and had instructions, if there was a threat of being captured, to disable the flamethrower, and then commit suicide."
Special Forces
During the Great Patriotic War, such a thing as special forces did not yet exist, however, troops that had undergone special training were already there. On the part of the USSR, they can be counted among the fighters of the airborne units, who had not yet been withdrawn into a separate branch of the army, and the marines. Among the Germans, airborne units and SS units can be classified as special forces.
The soldiers of these units had a higher training and, which is important, a higher moral stability, therefore, they showed more stubborn resistance. Often, on both sides of the front, they felt special hatred for such soldiers, when they were captured they were considered saboteurs and they always tried to destroy them on the spot.
So, according to the recollections of the sailor Vladimir Nikitovich Kaida, who fought on Malaya Zemlya, the marines did not surrender and always fought to the last, so no one counted on enemy leniency.
Partisans
The partisan formations made a huge contribution to the victory over the Germans and gave them many problems. Because of their actions during the Great Patriotic War, even in the deep rear, the Germans did not feel safe. The guerrillas raided the quartered troops, derailed trains with reinforcements and supplies, sabotaged military installations, and fought the invaders in other ways. Therefore, the Nazis did not take them prisoner.
Nationalities
During the war, not only soldiers of certain troops and military specialties, but also representatives of certain nationalities, could not count on saving their lives if they were captured. The Germans have always sought to kill Jews, Gypsies and Tuvans, and the latter were awarded this “honor” not because of the fascist theory of racial superiority, but because of their fighting qualities. They themselves did not take prisoners and fought to the last.
The Red Army did not spare the Hungarians for the atrocities they committed in the occupied territories, and also did not take prisoners of the Ukrainians and Russians who fought on the side of the enemy.
Vasily Khodarev