Prisoner of war

A prisoner of war (POW, PoW, PW, P/W, WP, PsW, enemy prisoner of war (EPW) or "missing-captured") is a person, whether combatant or non-combatant, who is held in custody by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates to 1660.

Belligerents hold prisoners of war in custody for a range of legitimate and illegitimate reasons, such as isolating them from enemy combatants still in the field (releasing and repatriating them in an orderly manner after hostilities), demonstrating military victory, punishing them, prosecuting them for war crimes, exploiting them for their labor, recruiting or even conscripting them as their own combatants, collecting military and political intelligence from them, or indoctrinating them in new political or religious beliefs.

Ancient times

For most of human history, depending on the culture of the victors, enemy combatants on the losing side in a battle who had surrendered and been taken as a prisoner of war could expect to be either slaughtered or enslaved. The first Roman gladiators were prisoners of war and were named according to their ethnic roots such as Samnite, Thracian, and the Gaul (Gallus). Homer's Iliad describes Greek and Trojan soldiers offering rewards of wealth to opposing forces who have defeated them on the battlefield in exchange for mercy, but their offers are not always accepted; see Lycaon for example.

Prisoner of War (disambiguation)

A prisoner of war is a person, whether combatant or non-combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict.

Prisoner of War may also refer to:

See also

Prisoner of War (video game)

Prisoner of War is a 2002 third-person stealth video game developed by Wide Games and published by Codemasters. It follows the story of Captain Lewis Stone, a downed American pilot who must escape numerous prisoner of war camps and return home.

Gameplay

Prisoner of War is quite different from other stealth games in that, although other stealth games utilise some small form of violence for the player to achieve his objectives, this game portrays little to no violence. For example, if the Nazi guards on duty, spot the player acting suspiciously, they will not shoot on sight. Instead, they will call on the player to cease his activity. If the player continues to disobey the guard, the guard will shoot him. There are other similar such scenarios for the player losing. If the player is near the guard when he is caught acting suspiciously, he will automatically surrender and lose. These scenarios open up a whole new dimension of ideas for the player to achieve his objectives, but the key aspect to the completion of this game is stealth. It also makes this game extremely difficult to complete. Furthermore, the game does not provide the player any combat mechanics; the player is unable to fight or kill any of their opponents and is instead required to complete their objectives through the use of stealth and deception.