Should a soldier pretend to be dead in a hot battle?

How common is it for soldiers to pretend to be dead during a battle?

This most certainly happened in WW2 and many other wars.

In WW1 there were cases where soldiers were stranded after a failed assault and played dead until it was safe to move back to friendly lines.

There's another well-documented incident in which an American paratrooper on D-Day was stuck on the steeple of a church while para dropping. He played dead while other Americans around him were shot by the Germans as they landed.

Another good documentation of this is in a book called Russia's Heroes 1941-1945. In it is a story of , a Ukrainian sniper on the Crimean battlefield. She decided to conceal herself in a tree. After two sniper bullets nearly killed her she decided to ‘fall’ and play dead.

The story then goes that she unexpectedly caught sight of her opponent, fired, and killed him. When she made her way over to her target a small notebook was found that indicated the German had killed more than 400 French and British soldiers in Western Europe. In 1943 she claimed to have killed 309 enemy soldiers.

In the Pacific region during WW2 it was extremely common for Japanese soldiers to play dead. Often American soldiers and marines would organize “possum squad” to shoot the ‘dead’ Japanese in the head. This can be seen in the Eugene Sledge interview. This is also mentioned in the book “Semper Fi, Mac.”

When thinking about doing this there are a few things to remember. The first is if you suddenly drop down ‘dead’ while your comrades are fighting you will not be looked on to favorably. You will likely be outcasted and be treated as a coward. Fighting by a a mans side creates a strong bond.

The next point is this would only be a last ditch resort. Even if you played dead there is no certainty you would be able to get to safe lines when ‘revived’. In addition to this by the time you realise there is a bullet headed for you, it is likely too late to choose this option. If a solider is playing dead there is no guarantee the enemy will believe your ‘death’. Often soldiers shot and stabbed corpses to make sure they were truly dead, similar to the American ‘possum’ squads.

The final point is it actually against the Geneva Convention, as it gives an unfair advantage. I believe this is only the case for occurrences such as the Japanese in the Pacific to prevent large scale attacks. There were likely many situations where soldiers would do this for survival, but few would have been documented. In the end war is about surviving.

Source: QUORA