My mom, a now retired teacher, is translating a record of school events (1930-1946) of my German hometown (Sögel). It is handwritten in Sütterlin, the historical form of German handwriting, and she is translating it to modern German.
My family moved to Sögel in the late 40ies. So it was by this chronicle that we discovered that Sögel was defended by SS troops and Canadian forces liberated Sögel after some fierce fighting.
So I searched the Library and Archives of Canada and found this picture which lead to my question.
Caption of the pic: "Lance-Corporal Don Stover of the 4th Canadian Armoured Division examines German "dumdum" soft-nosed bullets, Sogel, Germany, 10 April 1945. "
The origin of the ban on Dum Dum bullets comes from the Boer War. The Boer used hunting rifles and ammunition. Hunting ammo is designed to expand upon contact, increasing the chances of killing or disabling the animal. Against a human, the effect was rather brutal. Armies used full metal jacketed ammunition because (aside for the legal aspects), they tended to be less expensive, easier to handle/store/load and less likely to jam. The picture is not clear, but it does look more like a hunting round than a military round. Soldier found using dum dum rounds would have been liable to be charged for war crimes, but I do not know of any actually having been charged. Interesting if someone else on this topic could shed light on this.