My father told me that Canadian units killed German prisoners because the could not hold them as they were behind enemy lines. I asked him about combat. He said he avoided it. He had some German military souvenirs, one of which he related he stole off a German soldier by grabbing his belt in a foxhole. The German got away, he said, and all he got was that lousy belt. The belt buckle's inscription said "Gott Mittuns". God is With Us. I believe he was. They were not always listening to his advice carefully enough thought I will warrant.
One time he talked about taking an Italian town, I don't recall the name now but it is a known battle. What their unit did was surround the walled city with Bofors guns. Whenever somone moved in the town they pointed all 20 dual AA ack acks at the movement, night or day, and let them have it for one minute, 4 - four pound rounds per second. The obstinate German commander surrendered in 24 hours. About 1800 Civilians were casualties. They decided to let the Americans take that town and claim responsibility.
Neither he nor any of his unit, ever mistreated a captive otherwise. He did not hate the enemy he said, but had a good respect for them. He said they had the best equipment in the world and wherever possible they would steal it and use it instead of the crap we were issued with. Weapons that they threw away and never used were the Bren Gun, the Thompson Sub Machine Gun (deadly at a ten yard range if thrown at the enemy), the motorcycle, and the Webley pistol. What worked well was the .303, the AA gun and the field Howitzer. Technique for facing a sub machine gun was to stand there until he ran out of ammo, and then shoot him with your rifle. He always missed. He said they lost more people by motorcycle accident than by bullets in Italy.
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