We all know of the Axis War crimes - the Nazi Death/labour camps and the Japanese camps; etc, plus the thousands of smaller, sproradic and random atrociries committed against civilian and serviceman/woman alike, but which Allied actions were war crimes?
The carpet bombing of Germany by the RAF and the USAAF?
The carpet bombings and later the Atomic/Plutonium bombs on Japan?
Soviet
Mass rape and other war crimes by Soviet troops during the occupation of East Prussia (Danzig), parts of Pomerania and Silesia; during the Battle of Berlin, and the Battle of Budapest.
Canadians
Leonforte, July 1943. According to Mitcham and von Stauffenberg in The Battle of Sicily, The Loyal Edmonton Regiment killed captured German prisoners. The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada randomly burned houses in Friesoythe, northwestern Germany in April 1945.
British
The German revisionist historian Jörg Friedrich, claims that "Winston Churchill's decision to bomb Germany between January and May 1945 was a war crime." The historian Donald Bloxham states that "The bombing of Dresden on 13-14 February 1945 was a war crime".
He further argues that there was a strong prima facie for trying Winston Churchill among others and that there is theoretical case that he could have been found guilty.
"This should be a sobering thought. If, however it is also a startling one, this is probably less the result of widespread understanding of the nuance of international law and more because in the popular mind 'war criminal', like 'paedophile' or 'terrorist', has developed into a moral rather than a legal categorisation."
The subject of British involvement in war crimes during the campaign in North West Europe, between D Day and VE Day, was covered by historian Sean Longden in a chapter entitled 'Rage Revenge and Retribution' in his book 'To the Victor the Spoils'.
American
Canicattì slaughter: killing of Italian civilians by US army Lieutenant Colonel McCaffrey. A confidential inquiry was made, but McCaffrey was never charged with an offence relating to the incident. He died in 1954. This incident remained virtually unknown until Joseph S. Salemi of New York University, whose father witnessed it, publicised it.
# The Dachau massacre: killing of German prisoners of war and surrendering SS soldiers
# In the Biscari massacre, which consist of two instances of mass murders, U.S. troops of the 45th Infantry Division killed roughly 75 prisoners of war, mostly Italian.
# Richard Dominic Wiggers asserts that not only did American food policy in post-war Germany violate international law by directly and indirectly causing the unnecessary suffering and death, from starvation, of large numbers of civilians and POWs in occupied Germany. The adequate feeding of the German population in occupied Germany was an Allied legal obligation, under international law (Article 43 of The 1907 Hague Rules of Land Warfare).
Rape
It has been claimed that some US soldiers raped Okinawan women during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. While the number of rapes committed by US troops is not known, historian Peter Schrijvers states that an Okinawan historian[who?] has estimated that the number may have exceeded 10,000. There were 1,336 reported rapes during the first 10 days of the occupation of the Kanagawa prefecture.
"When US paratroopers landed in Sapporo, an orgy of looting, sexual violence and drunken brawling ensued. Gang rapes and other sex atrocities were not infrequent." Some of the rape victims committed suicide.
"A former prostitute recalled that as soon as Australian troops arrived in Kure in early 1946, they 'dragged young women into their jeeps, took them to the mountain, and then raped them. I heard them screaming for help nearly every night'."
The Allied occupation forces suppressed news of its criminal activities, on September 10 1945 SCAP "issued press and pre-censorship codes outlawing the publication of all reports and statistics 'inimical to the objectives of the Occupation'."
Allan Clifton, an Australian officer of the BCOF who acted as interpreter and criminal investigator wrote:
"I stood beside a bed in hospital. On it lay a girl, unconscious, her long, black hair in wild tumult on the pillow. A doctor and two nurses were working to revive her. An hour before she had been raped by twenty soldiers. We found her where they had left her, on a piece of waste land. the hospital was in Hiroshima. the girl was Japanese. The soldiers were Australians.
The Moaning and wailing had ceased and she was quiet now. The tortured tension on her face had slipped away, and the soft brown skin was smooth and unwrinkled, stained with tears like the face of a child that has cried herself to sleep."
As to Australian justice he writes regarding another rape that was witnessed by a party of cardplayers:
"At the court martial that followed, the accused was found guilty and sentenced to ten years penal servitude. In accordance with army law the courts decision was forwarded to Australia for confirmation. Some time later the documents were returned marked 'Conviction quashed because of insufficient evidence'."
In 1998 the remains of three US Marines stationed on Okinawa were discovered outside of a local village. Accounts from elderly Okinawans verify that the men had made frequent trips to the village to rape the women that lived there but were ambushed and killed by men from the village on one of their return trips. According to the same article, published in 2000,
"rape was so prevalent that most Okinawans over age 65 either know or have heard of a woman who was raped in the aftermath of the war."
Okinawan historian Oshiro Masayasu (former director of the Okinawa Prefectural Historical Archives) writes based on several years of research:
Soon after the US marines landed, all the women of a village on Motobu Peninsula fell into the hands of American soldiers. At the time, there were only women, children and old people in the village, as all the young men had been mobilized for the war. Soon after landing, the marines "mopped up" the entire village, but found no signs of Japanese forces. Taking advantage of the situation, they started "hunting for women" in broad daylight and those who were hiding in the village or nearby air raid shelters were dragged out one after another.
Grim, but do the horrors suffered by the civilians and troops by the Japanese and Nazis across the globe justify the anger and hatred borne by the allied lads?