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A shocking and disgraceful episode at the close of WW2, in 1946 and 47. The fact that the top leadership in in the UK and US carried this out suggests a sympathy at the highest level for Communism, and an antipathy for the Russian nationalists who fought against it.
Those deported were mostly POWs captured by Germany, and civilians from Russia and Ukraine sent to Germany as forced labor. They also included Russians and Ukrainians who had welcomed the Germans and fought along side them , and Russian emigres who had lived in Germany before the war who were pro-German, of which there were many. (Wikipedia)
Many of the Russians committed suicide rather than be sent to the USSR. The UK troops had to beat them severely to force them onto trains taking them back.
This film was made by the BBC in the 1980s, but never broadcast in Britain.
The word 'Keelhaul' means a severe form of punishment meted out to sailors, involving dragging them by a rope under the keel of a ship. It usually resulted in death, or crippling physical damage.
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