I worked with a guy who was sentenced for robbery(3 year term),assault(2 years) and murder(10 years).So apparently he fought in the soviet -afghan war, First nagorno-karabah war,yugoslavia,first Chechen war and Russo-Georgian conflict.He was jailed in 2009 for murder and paroled and based on he's past combat experience send to fight inDobass (2014).Every time I questioned some the wild stories he was telling, he'd show me some old photo. The dude in question was 52 years at the time , he was covered in scars and tattoos and was still jacked as a mutafaka. At the start of the Russian invasion this year apparently he was wounded so he called me and joked that the doctors told him that his Rambo days are over. BTW dude in question is ukrainian.
@@konstantinosnikolakakis8125 I'm writing down what I was told!Idk how stuff work in Ukrain,but in Bulgaria my grandfather stabbed a guy 16 times and severed his head off ,and he didn't serve a day in jail . Money and clinical insanity work wonders some times. Edit:The one that got killed was shot dead because he was trying to force his killer's daughter into prostitution..
@@FROST76608 Hmmm, in my home country (Canada), the sentence for murder is life, which means twenty five years with a chance for parole after twenty five.
At age 17, R Lee Ermey was arrested for criminal mischief. He was given two options: One, go to jail, or two, enter the service. You all know he chose to enter the US Marines during the Vietnam War. Edit: Wow I wasn't expecting to have 1.5k likes. Thanks guys.
I'm originally from the same town as him, and was lucky enough to meet him while I was doing security at a Veteran's Day event. I was astounded by how friendly and personable he was, but slightly disappointed he didn't scream at me lol
The Marines made him a man, and the man made the Marines famous. He's the face/icon of the Drill Instructor and the Gunnery Sgt when someone thinks of those.
convicts can be effective in combat especially if they have combat experience. I once watched this documentary about this convicted group of commandos who in 1972 promptly escaped from a maximum security military stockade to the Los Angeles area. they survived being on the run by working as soldiers of fortune; if you needed help and could find them, you could have hired them.
I remember watching a US documentary about a group of convicts being recruited in WWII for a particularly dangerous mission. If I recall there were about 12 of them and they weren't the cleanest of chaps.
@@agent45625 did actually happen a fair amount. Sometimes they ended up in special forces since they were more independently minded and more used to hard living than your average conscript.
The Dirlewanger Brigade was so disgusting even the SS regarded them as evil. In 1945, Oskar Dirlewanger was captured while trying to escape disguised as a civilian. He was recognized and turned in by a concentration camp survivor. He was imprisoned at the Altshausen prison camp and beaten to death by the guards. A story with a happy ending.
My father told me about the ethos of Korean marines. That they were 80 percent prisoners and orphans and had nothing to go back home for and started to basically love the open world of combat to alleviate uncommon aggression
And it turns out a lot of the time they're more of a liability on the battlefield than an asset. If you have problems with authority, cooperating with others and being a thief, you probably wont make a good soldier and the other soldiers will probably hate you.
@K Smith agreed some just needed guidance for good. Others well the others are the ones that commit war crimes or participate in it(see Russian convicts in Ukraine or Berlin.)
@@joshlyon1315 I Agree this Bosow brain isn’t from Australia and no the entire Australia armed forces are not prison inmates or criminals he is just a horrible person talking about another country he knows nothing about people like him make me sick
One major down factor of using them, especially shown in WW2 with Nazis... They committed so many crimes and atrocities that only solidified the will of the opposing side to fight. If the enemy knows they will be butchered if they surrender, that will only motivate them to fight even harder, to the bitter end. And if the tide of war turns (as was the case with Nazis), the other side after seeing the atrocities, will want a payback and commit them themselves. So, once again, a lot of innocent civilians will pay a horrible price for something they haven't done...
oh really the nazis those bielorussians and others civilians would also be under show trials and executed if they didnt submit to the rules and ordes of the soviet partisans who would acuse anyone they wished of being in league with the germans; they also killed a lot of their own civilians
USSR conscript soldiers surrendered in large numbers, many even fought for the Germans against the USSR, who commited far worse crimes against them. Ukrainians/ Lithuanians/ Kazaks/ White Russians etc
It's worth noting yhat the US did this with petty criminals, not serious criminals, while the Einsatzgruppen were specifically chosen from murders, rapists, and psychopaths. The US mainly did this as an option to avoid prison rather than forced into it. The USSR penal battalions were mostly people convicted of cowardice or were chosen arbitrarily and those battalions were treated as disposable, the men knew it and so did the commanders so joining the enemy was usually a more pleasant choice during the early stages of WW2 and only later once the evils of the concentration camps became widely known did Soviet penal battalions stop surrendering en mass at the first opportunity.
"Over time, Joe and I got to be best friends. And since we were both poor, and there wasn't much work around, we started a little business of our own..." "Well that one time it didn't work so good. The year was 1943. America was at war and the Army was lookin' for guys who spoke the language to help with the invasion of Sicily." "I was eighteen, and anything seemed better than jail. Who says you can't go home again?"
They drafted former servicemen with combat experience who were imprisoned for crimes, Wagner takes in regular convicts and on a large scale, in thousands.
The moment I saw this video pop up in my recommendations I just knew you had to talk about the Dirlewanger brigade. You should’ve talked more about their crimes though but I understand why you wouldn’t. Many of their crimes are far too graphic to be put on any RU-vid video and would’ve made this video age restricted.
What this describes sounds quite a lot like the premise of The Dirty Dozen movies that had Lee Marvin and Telly Savalas in them. The only major differences regarding the premise of the film, is that some of the war criminals selected were also considered to either be dangerously mentally ill or extremely violent as well as having been sentenced to death or long term imprisonment. And additionally instead of just being put on the frontline alongside other infantry units, they were assigned on high risk or suicide missions that the military wouldn't be willing to risk expending their main infantry units for. The criminals in the Dirty Dozen were assigned the job and retrained for it instead because of the fact that it wouldn't be a huge loss to the high brass if they failed, and in exchange for accepting the mission, it also puts the possibility of remission of what they were initially sentenced to in exchange for fulfilling their end of the agreement.
I studied the use of prisoners by Germany and Russia during WW2 and then later in guerilla wars in Africa. Some of these guys were hard core belligerent violent and had a loose moral code. This idea was floated to the US during Vietnam too. Soldiers with skills in burglary, forgery, racing, torture, and various other 'skills' were used to train US special forces and Navy Seals. Particularly by Richard Marcinko in the 80's when Team Six was first formed.
In fact, in the United States, prisoners were used during the war between the north and the south. So it is their experience that Germany and the USSR applied at home.
8:44 and in footage Prigozhin himself said "if you kill, rob or rape civilians, you will be shot. Deserters will be shot too" and yes, there were news of deserters in Wagner PMC, who got shot.
9:20 that feels like a bullshit, tho. They didn't even send all 300k mobilized reservists into Ukraine yet (they're still in training centers and some will only go to Ukraine in 2023), so why would regular army go and do whole penal battalion thing? Prigozhin himself is just getting more manpower for his small army (like Kadyrov has his own guard regiment, tiktoker company and etc. btw there's no more tiktoks of those, I wonder where they went...)
Afaik Germans had entire penal divisions at some point. They were few, but definitely had times when almost entirety of their manpower was just wiped. Oh and the SS battalion mentioned in video turned out to be terrible against real military, for they had zero real tactics and instead just ran/walked at their enemy and hip fired their guns. What also didn't help them was the fact they had no armored vehicles as a support.
My Grandfather was arrested, along with his cousin, for shoplifting when he was 16 or 17. The judge gave them two options, the Army or jail. They chose the Army. Grandpa was sent to Guam in 1945. He and his buddies captured two Japanese holdouts. After his discharge, Grandpa went back home around 1947, but ran into trouble again. Left with no other recourse he rejoined the Army and made it a career, up to 26 years of service. World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. About half of that service was sober. We think.
I know it's not quite the same thing as a "penal battalion," but I know that in the old days, at least through they Vietnam era, young men convicted of minor crimes were given the option of military service as an alternative to imprisonment. I heard that's how Jimi Hendrix ended up in the 101st Airborne Division. He got caught, like, stealing a car or something, and the judge said he could either go to jail or go to the army. That's not a hard choice...
My great uncle was an U.S. Air Corps navigator on bombing runs and a POW twice between WW2 and Korea. After surviving that he became an Officer, he was emplaced with Russian immigrants, learned Russian, and then worked at Norad before it was public. When he was about to retire they wouldn’t promote him to Lt. Col. Not sure if it was with the changing of times or someone didn’t like him, but they wouldn’t promote him because he had a violent crime on his record. He joined Army the age of 17 because of this reason, go to prison or join the service. He survived two wars, learned a new language, became an officer and got to work at a top secret base for the times, all because he beat someone up. They promoted him to Lt. Col. only after he passed away of old age, so at least Uncle Sam did that.
when I was younger, i couldn't understand how can tens of thousands of people get killed without deffending themselves.. as I grow older, I learn about the world and I now know that the way to make that happen is ===> compliance ... DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES COMPLY TO ANYTHING THAT IS INHUMANE!! EVER!!!!
"The day's work are done my candlesticks, silverware, fancy glasses and kitchen knives have been left out on the table in plain view and the doors have been left unlocked. Time to go to bed."
"Ah, excellent. A fabulous display from which to steal. I shall individually place each of these things into my satchel in the most delicate manner possible."
@@ImperatorZor I mean, the smart move would be not to burglarize an occupied building (especially a home, since that's a higher-level felony). The smartest move, of course, would be just not being a burglar lol
Урок истории для наших "Натовских партнёров". Во первых, приказ 277 являлся приказом устанавливающим десциплинарную ответственность для военнослужащих и граждан, что оставили оборудование, оружие, продовольствие и т.п. врагу. Приказ же, получивший название "Ни шагу назад!" имел номер 227 и устанавливал десциплинарную ответственность для военнослужащих за САМОВОЛЬНОЕ ОСТАВЛЕНИЕ СВОИХ ПОЗИЦИЙ И ТРУСОСТЬ. В действительности, НЕ БЫЛО НИКАКИХ ЗАГРАДИТЕЛЬНЫХ ОТРЯДОВ ЧТО РАССТРЕЛИВАЛИ ВСЕХ ТРУСОВ И ДЕЗЕРТИРОВ! Заградительные отряды НКВД, как правило, возвращали в бой или на пересыльнные пункты около 80% всех испугавшихся солдат. Расстреливали агитаторов и провокаторов и из всей массы это ~5-10%. Штрафные батальоны, во времена Великой Отечественной войны, как правило, использовались как штурмовые батальоны при штурме оборонительных линий немецких фашистов. Сейчас же, на войне с фашистским режимом Украины, "штрафники" имеют ту же роль штурмовиков и как правило действуют ни как отдельная боевая единица, а как единица интыгрирующаяся с танковыми и артилерискими подразделениями. Разговоры о массовой сдаче в плен российских штрафников-миф, не имеющий весомых доказательств.(факт того, что бывают случаи сдачи отдельных бойцов, я не отрицаю). Подучите историю, товарищи с запада.
My uncle was given the option of jail or the military (he shot up a Burger King he worked at after closing hours). He ended up making a career of it, and we think he did some spooky stuff after he retired in the early 2000's, but we don't know for certain. He recently retired from being a contractor for the Navy. My theory is that some people just need structure, and they'll go crazy without it. The military (or prison I suppose) can provide that.
He shot up a burger King and they let him join the military?I got a felony for drug possession(1 xanax) and they still wouldn't let me join instead of doing time
@@Mister.45 I’m sure if we were at full blown war like a Vietnam scenario that they would let you join the military. We’re not at full blown war right now.
In 1968, South Korean intelligence established the assassination squad UNIT 684 in which the recruits were the petty, lowly street criminals as well as ordinary people where they were lured and tricked with money. UNIT 684 was a response for failed North Korean assassination attempt on President Park Chung Hee. UNIT 684 was shrouded in secrecy in South Korea for many years due to controversial nature of the recruitments sources and inhumane commando training that would make nowadays' special forces training look like a kindergarten. UNIT 684 recruits were pushed to the limit until they launched rogue uprising in 1971 by killing their trainers and hijacking the public bus on their way to Seoul, but they were stopped by the ROK Army. Realizing no way out, the recruits committed mass suicide with hand grenades.
it silmido movie right? i watch it on tv as a kid but i dont understand too much about the movie, but as i grew up its darker than how i imagined it back then
@@donny8593 yes, that movie is SILMIDO. I've watched them on YT. The movie portrayed 31 recruits as death-sentence convicts that got secretly smuggled into uninhabited Silmido island to be trained as commandos. The training method portrayed in the movie is just part of the horrendous inhumane method imposed on the real life 31 recruits. I believe the reason was to dehumanize the recruits into a ruthless killing machine waiting to be sent to assasinate Kim il Sung. The Silmido recruit uprising in 1971 was indeed the darkest moment in South Korean history.
a veteran I work with had a great idea people who are in prison for small offenses, Drugs, theft, tax evasion, some SO's, send them on an 18 month deployment, and if they survive, they walk off the plane as free men that's his same solution for illegal immigrants
I like it how this channel keeps going with the news flow. It's really amazing to watch the historical channel make videos about historical events in action. There is really no need to wait for facts, and let historical events fully finish and project the results on the world, when you can make something that grabs the attention, no matter the objectivity. Cool videos, keep on.👍👍👍
I can understand people that have been convicted of relatively forgivable crimes but rape murder robbery these are not people that you want on the battlefield
I love that you guys showed the Russian prisoner using the homemade crossbow from the prison weapons episode. Your attention to detail is amazing and that was a great Easter egg!
Your pumping videos out fast and its actually shows you just how much history there is to learn that's why I love this channel I've been watching for years
One thing this video forgot to mention: Ukrain first tapped into their prison population using a lot of prisoners at the front lines, however they where used in siege warfare, meaning a lot of them are pretty likely to be dead, used as cannon foder for Russian artillery. Some fought with international volunteers, a lot of them finding death together.
I technically disagree, @@christiandauz3742: < ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-VSGmPpidDvo.html > & < trying to find a UNN broadcast about this in _Wings of Liberty_ >…
Ah, so if you’re going by the different kinds of infantry, such as marines vs ghosts, I would agree with you, @@christiandauz3742. However, don’t assume that the numbers of individual units on the battlefields are exactly the same & such…
Not even mentioning the FFL in this video is a big miss imo, but what this channel didn't miss ofc was to include Russia. Like come on, you guys with your clickbait 1 hour video reusing previous content and now references to current events that you HAD to insert in this one, I'm getting bored of this channel tbf. Ukraine this, Ukraine that, stop the propaganda please. War is not entertainment, it's sad. Unless you have dark desires yourselves.
In Yugoslav wars in 1990's, criminals (some of them even worked for secret services before wars, operating in west europe) were not only drafted, but probably encouraged to lead so called "volunteer corps", that were in fact vultures whom came and just loot and killed. Since they were covertly state sponsored, they were often portraited as heros.
From the early stage of war many criminals were drafted into Ukrainian military, armed and sent to the frontline. Ukrainians gave free AK and 2 mags to everyone with Ukrainian citizenship who asked for this. Which caused many incidents when armed criminals robbed civilians and sporadic shootouts between armed groups of paranoid civilians looked for russian spies everywhere. Right now drafting criminals into military is common practice with both Ukrainian and Russian sides.
Wagner finished recruiting prisoners around the same time this video went live, lol. Also, just FYI: they never hired career criminals, psychos and rapists, while people with drug offences conviction were assigned additional personal interviews with criminal psychologists, if memory serves me.
Patton was sure Zhukov would turn on Stalin. If that was the case it would've worked. Would've saved all those killed by the Socialists and communists last century.
I was telling a friend of mine about the Wagner Group. He had no idea what I was talking about until I said "Putin's version of the Dirlewanger Brigade." He understood immediately.
Ukraine did also recruit prisoners early in this conflict, majority of which were Ukrainian soldiers convicted of murder, robbery, rape and outright warcrimes against their own civilian population during 2014 civil war. I do understand it goes against the mainstream narrative to mention those, but I'm severely disappointed nonetheless. It's important we apply the same standards to each side of the conflict regardless of our biases, especially when producing educational content.
