German involvement in battlefield cleanup?

[depaor01]

This does have a WWI angle. Honest!

 

My son beat me at Scrabble (by two points!) and said he wasn't going to tidy up the game because the victor shouldn't have to .

 

This prompted a train of thought - we are all familiar with the Allied efforts with the Chinese Labour Corps in cleaning up the devastation on the Western front, but I have never come across any mention of German involvement in battlefield cleanup.

 

Why is this? One would imagine that a more effective form of reparation (than financial) would have been to get Germany to provide the manpower to make the battlefields safe. Instead, Britain seems to have gone to a lot of trouble to start the process with Chinese involvement.

 

Why?

 

Dave

 

[AOK4]

Plenty of German POWs were involved in cleaning up the battlefields.

 

[jay dubaya]

From memory Hugh Clout’s ‘After the Ruins’ touches on the subject of German labour during the aftermath and the resulting clear up of the battlefields, many of the returning civilians didn’t want the enemy on their land once the war was over

[egbert]

The French Etat Civile after the war pressed tens of thousands of German PoWs into clearing the Battlefield and the high seas. This was and still is an illegal act on the PoWs. They were used as human machines to clear UXOs and were sent into mine fields with no protection. A very good book on that subject is from Ziese "Das Unsichtbare Denkmal". Some quotes from the book are mentioned here on GWF, just use the search function.

[depaor01]

Thanks all for the input.

Egbert I'm sure you are aware of the German film 'Land of Mine' which covers the same abuse of German POWs for mine clearance in the Second World War. I wasn't aware it had been done before.

Dave

[phil andrade]

In the immediate aftermath of conflict , wouldn’t the priority be  to get on with the job ASAP, rather than wait for the terms of treaty resolution to decide how best to punish the enemy by dint of compulsory clearance ?

 

Phil

[egbert]

17 hours ago, depaor01 said:

Thanks all for the input.

Egbert I'm sure you are aware of the German film 'Land of Mine' which covers the same abuse of German POWs for mine clearance in the Second World War. I wasn't aware it had been done before.

Dave

I am not aware of the film but just found it on YouTube. Will watch when back home. Thanks for pointing out.....

 

On the other hand this abuse of PoWs is well documented for both sides. The coastal city of Cuxhaven, where I once lived, was the center of the North Sea sea mine clearing activities after the war. The Brits forced German fishermen and 37.000 German Navy PoWs to clear the sea mines way long after the end of WW2. The mine sweeping service was called GMSA and was not voluntarily….

[BullerTurner]

In the other war of which we do not speak on here, all mentions were allowed to wear the oak leaf...whether earned in Whitehall or Kohima?

 

There were quite a few levels of commendation beneath the decorations/MiD.  Some recipients of a "card" might have expected an award in other circumstances, it is a bit of a lottery the decorations and medals world.