I'm sure it was more common than the average person thinks. Especially in situations like Stalingrad where German soldiers ate their horses to survive...and probably more than horses. Not to mention the civilians in areas cutoff from supplies as the German War machine drove eastward. It's a known fact that the German High Command decided on starving out civilians in some cities (can't remember the one I just saw's name) instead of wasting men and machinery to clear them out. Might have been Leningrad, but I'm not sure. So they used the tried and true pincer movement to make escape all but impossible and re-supplying just as futile.
It is an interesting topic to research...and challenging. Getting eyewitnesses and participants to give their accounts or finding a diary of such acts is obviously hard. Would make for an interesting book.
I've read and heard the testimonies of many WWI vets and the stories they have are quite disturbing. Leaving your best friend's corpse to rot mere feet from a trench...I remember a movie (a true story) about a Hollywood Director who came from England and served during the war and him breaking down telling the story of one of their comrades who was dead, stuck in barbed wire near their trench for days and days. The soldiers just said things like "how you doin today, Jack?" Like he was now their mascot. All the while he stayed there decomposing and the stench became unbearable, but removing him would have likely resulted in death by enemy sniper. Point is, after awhile they had all become so desensitized to death it was almost a form of comic relief to talk to the rotting boy.
All wars are brutal and have horror stories still yet to be told. I've just always wondered how the extreme conditions of trench warfare and what they saw and did affected the soldiers, many of whom went on to enormous power...like Hitler. Where his war experiences what led to him valuing human life with so little regard? I'm not condoning what he, or others, did but when as a young man he saw death with regularity and as a means to an end it must desensitize a person. Lives are expendable. After-all the nation and its people are one in the same in National Socialism.
I'd be really interested in reading a Book, thesis, or whatever on cannibalism during war. Mainly concentrating on both World Wars. Where it happened, what conditions were, etc.. and maybe some basic figures. Plus, what units and from what Country did they originate from. What Country or ethic group seemed to be the easiest to take the plunge and what role in regards to religion, education, etc..factor in, if perhaps at all.
Whereas US troops (UK also) were/are remarkably well-fed in comparison to their advesaries, many who struggled to find enough food to maintain a barely subsistence level of fitness and energy before war was declared. It wouldn't have taken many rough days and nights before they mentally and physically started to crack, and the idea of surviving through eating another person's flesh suddenly didn't seem that far of a stretch. Or that outrageous, for that matter.
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