Desertion fighting in France and more desultory action in Germany in 1945 Many men returned to their units after a few days of being classified as AWL; others took to the forests as some British troops did during the Great War The death penalty for desertion or cowardice was abolished in the British Army in 1930 There was some discussion of reviving it after the disaster at Tobruk, but this was not done Some British and American soldiers stayed away from their units but remained in theater for months, living by theft from local civilians or by stealing supplies from Allied depots Some of these men were ordinary criminals who had been drafted into service but who reverted to character once overseas, where they escaped into the anarchic conditions of logistical abundance that marked Western Allied rear areas Conversely, at least 7,000 Irishmen deserted their national army to volunteer and serve in British armed forces Desertion rates from minor Axis states were high, and grew higher as catastrophic defeat hit the Rumanian, Hungarian, and Italian armies on the Eastern Front A number of Wehrmacht conscripts who were also committed Communists deserted to Soviet lines just before BARBAROSSA, on the night of June 21–22, 1941 Some Hiwis took the opportunity of a return to the frontlines to cross back to the Soviet side, an act for which they were seldom rewarded and more often brutally punished by the Red Army From mid-1943, Wehrmacht desertions across Soviet lines rose dramatically, as despair and too much fighting took a toll on troops tasting defeat more often than victory Also, German desertions rose as the Red Army sent out instructions against killing prisoners, which had been common practice over the first six months of the German–Soviet war Adolf Hitler and German officers had tens of thousands of men shot for desertion: at least 15,000 after formal Wehrmacht trials, but uncounted numbers by summary execution Nevertheless, German desertion rates climbed dramatically in 1945 as men and boys fighting on their home soil saw that the war was lost or tried to sneak home to protect their families Many were caught out of uniform and shot by fanatic SS or Nazi Party officials; others were shot by roving Wehrmacht firing squads This type of desertion was common in western Germany from January 1945, more so than in the hard-fought eastern half of the country In the east deserters ran a gauntlet formed by vengeful krasnoarmeets, brutal Nazi bitterenders, and desperate officers who ordered men summarily shot In many cases, men were shot for desertion after being cutoff from their unit, without ever trying to desert In the Red Army, desertion was closely monitored by the NKVD It also numbered among “extraordinary events,” which Soviet authorities automatically punished with death In the first year of the war especially, merciless blocking detachments were deployed in the immediate rear of frontline troops Soldiers most likely to desert in the opening weeks and months of the German invasion were new conscripts from recently annexed—and deeply embittered—Baltic States and Bessarabia In addition to individual Baltic and Rumanian desertions, some whole Baltic units turned their guns against the Red Army Men from other Soviet populations likely to desert were Belorussian and Ukrainian peasants who despised the collective farms and remembered the great and artificial famine of the 1930s carried out by Joseph Stalin and the Soviet state Some also initially 305