Looting whilst shooting

Good title eh?

Remember seeing one antiques roadshow when a guy brought on a beautiful Reichsbahn train set. It was aquired during the advance through Germany in the second war.

I worked with an old guy who was a long range sniper (RA) during the war. They actually got a unit commendation for covering the retreat from Arnhem. His mob came across this rather large barge on a canal near Eindhoven. He told me it was full of Phillips radio sets (wirelesses?) and they were all dancing with joy at the thought of being rich. Unfortunately every single one had a main component (A valve or something?) missing and if memory serves me correctly they sank it in anger.

My brother in law was one of the few Royal Marine national servicemen and he was in the Suez invasion with 40 commando I think? After they "won" the war, he was ordered to guard some warehouses on the docks. During the night a small convoy of trucks approached and he did the usual Halt who goes there, what the hell do you want etc and found that they were manned by French Foreign Legion troops. Some of the ugliest and nastiest looking people around. He did what all good soldiers do and turned a blind eye while they stripped the place bare of loot, stuck it in their wagons and buggered off.

The British lads also aquired a fair amount of souvenirs but on arrival back in the UK they were informed on the ships tannoy that customs would be checking everyone. Cameras, guns, and other loot went straight over the side. You guessed it, they were waved through without any checking.

Looting - everywhere, bar the Falklands and Germany, the Army sent me there was looting. Not by us but by the locals.

Bosnia, Kosovo, Rwanda, Afghanistan. I expect it was due to people needing to sustain a minimum of existance but it still shocked me that a person will steal what once belonged to another person.