What instances are there of countries using POWS, slaves, or other people as cannon fodder to fight in their wars, if so how did it turn out?
>>282208
Nazis did that a lot. Most of the people they used simply surrendered or switched sides when the Allies closed in on them.
>>282208
Russia threw peasants--sorry, "glorious workers"--at the nazis until they stoppe.
Worked out okay for Russia.
I think ancient Greeks used slaves in war, but hellenistic slavery was different from todays definition.
>>282218
>I think ancient Greeks used slaves in war, but hellenistic slavery was different from todays definition.
Unless I'm mistaken, Sparta used helots for rear roles and even minor fighting.
>>282208
The Mongols would use people they captured as meat shields while riding into battle. They did a lot of shit to unhinge their enemies psychologically.
>>282231
>The Mongols would use people they captured as meat shields while riding into battle.
It's kind of a dark humor what the Mongols did to townspeople who surrendered.
>Hey, since you surrendered we will let you live but first you have to help us win this battle. Now march.
>>282231
They also hucked dead bodies into cities they were sieging to spread disease
Although I don't know if that really counts
You can look at dubai now... where they literally get the homeless, and children and train them to be cannon fodder for the African wars..
>>282247
Yeah, real stand up chaps.
I wonder if they actually used bubonic plague victims to spread the plague to cities they were besieging. I've read that they would catapult the severed heads of plague victims straight into the enemy's cities as a big fuck you to whoever they were fighting, but I'm not entirely sure of the validity of this claim.
>>282228
I bet the Spartans had plenty of rear roles if you know what I mean.
![pervaya[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/rRnrVGV.jpg "pervaya[1].jpg")
>>282208
"Black Jackets", Soviet citizens from "liberated territories" mobilized and thrown together with almost no training or equipment.
Classic Russian story of massacring your own people for no reason.
>>282208
Well seeing that Russia gets tons of glory in this thread, let me add to it.
The Soviet army had a penal regiment in WWII, which included anyone from murderers and rapists to food stealing kids and Stalin slanderers. Not only were they the cannon fodder of choice, they also had the rule of not stepping one step back, considering a whole line of trenched MGs was waiting for them when they fled.
>>282208
Third Reich used a lot of conscripted soldiers from Spain, Hungary etc.
If history is anything to go by, using slaves/POWs as front line troops and not support elements is usually a bad idea, they'll change sides or stop fighting at the drop of a hat as soon as the enemy closes in.
I always get sad with that scene in Saving Private Ryan with the Czech conscript trying to tell the American soldier he's Czech and not German but the Yank shoots him anyway, laughing, he never asked for this.
>>282208
Would the early Janissary corp count? They were mostly POWs, but were the opposite of cannon fodder.
>>282247
do tell more
what exactly did they do
>>282208
Being posted in the frontier was usually a punishment for the Chinese criminals.
It was actually between Imprisonment and Death Sentence. But IRL, a lot of people saw new opportunities being a soldier in the frontier.
A lot of villages along the great wall, for example, are made up of excons' descendants who settled there and became headmen of a village.
>>282208
You reminded me of this timely article:
https://pando.com/2014/02/12/war-nerd-the-long-sleazy-history-behind-a-googlers-nonviolent-militia/
>>285328
WHERE THE FUCK ARE THOSE ILLUSTRATIONS FROM?
>>282208
Nazi's did, Hilfswilliger were generally volunteers, but they often pressed captured soviet soldiers into fighting for them
>>282228
They were promised freedom for their services. Also as you said they were far from being used as cannon fodder.
>>285261
Well, janissaries were often the first to be sent to storm fortifications, right?
T.b.h. the very same notion of cannon fodder doesn't make a lot of sense in most styles of pre-modern warfare. It will just make your whole formation break and the battle to be lost, with the unvaluable troops fleeing and the valuable ones being surrounded.
>>285347
this, like where the hell are these pouring out of?
>>285347
Osprey Publishing.
>>282208
arab slave traders exploiting blacks for centuries long before whitey whip crackers
http://www.arabslavetrade.com/
http://originalpeople.org/the-arab-muslim-slave-trade-of-africans-the-untold-story/
