Hello.
So I'm joining the crowd and asking a WW2 question. Rather famously, the US had only one soldier convicted of desertion, however I was curious to know if other nations during the Second World War had the same level of desertion (at least convicted of desertion). A focus would be on the major nations: Britain, France (Which I would imagine be more complicated due to the duality of Free France/Vichy military existence), Germany, and the USSR.
Desertion was commonplace on the eastern front during WWII; at first, most commonly from the USSR to the Axis lines, as the Axis forces enjoyed early success in Operation Barbarossa, against a poorly equipped and coordinated opposition. Many deserters fought as 'Hiwis' for the Axis; at first in auxiliary functions, but later as regular infantry as conventional Axis forces became exhausted.
Antony Beevor's book 'Stalingrad' treats extensively on the history of the Hiwis. Although the Russian government is unlikely to ever declassify the NKVD records of what happened to them, it is likely they were either put to death or employed as slave labour (page )
"Executed" not "convicted"