The book Deserters: A Hidden History of World War II, published by American author Charles Glass, revealed that as many as 50,000 American soldiers deserted during World War II.
When the United States entered World War II in December 1941, there were still thousands of World War I veterans who had yet to recover from the physical and psychological trauma of the previous war. After participating in World War II, psychiatrists managed to defer enlistment of more than 1.7 million people in order to eliminate the possible impact of mental illness on combat effectiveness. But in the first few months after entering the war, deserters continued to appear in the US military, and a report in May 1942 showed that 2,822 people in the US Army were deserters. With the U.S. landing in North Africa in November 1942, the long-running corps operations began, and the phenomenon of desertion gradually increased. To this end, the U.S. military urgently dispatched additional psychological care units to the war zone to help traumatized soldiers return to the front line.
On June 6, 1944, the Allied forces, mainly American troops, landed in Normandy, France. Some U.S. soldiers took advantage of the opportunity to land on the European continent and collectively deserted. After the liberation of Paris, deserters also organized criminal gangs and colluded with the Parisian underworld, bringing an unprecedented wave of crime to Paris. There was an unexpected situation: Allied forces were fighting Hitler's forces in Europe, while law enforcement officers were fighting deserter gangs that threatened victory in Europe.
The report shows that a total of 50,000 American soldiers deserted during World War II, but only 49 were sentenced to death, and only one was actually executed. After the war, the history of 50,000 deserters was wiped out by the U.S. military. Under the background that the military is reluctant to investigate, many U.S. military deserters remain incognito in Europe and start their new lives.
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