[Raellus]

In WWII, both the Soviets and the Germans formed and used penal units. The Soviets sometimes used them to clear minefields ahead of an attack- by walking the penal unit through the minefield at gunpoint!

I think NATO units would use POW as a labor force. I don't know what the Geneva Conventions say about making prisoners work but even if it forbids it, armies by 2000 would be so short of manpower that I think it would be common practice (as longs as the prisoners could be fed).

A character I play in a long running PbP is a Latvian who escaped from a Soviet penal battalion. Here's a bit of his bio:

It would be safe to say that Varis Babicevs has a checkered past. Before being conscripted into the Soviet army, Varis was an enforcer for a small-time Latvian crime syndicate specializing in extortion and the smuggling of various black market commodities though the port city (and Latvian capitol) of Riga.

As a motorized rifleman in the Soviet army, Varis fought in several campaigns in Eastern Europe. His service record was anything but exemplary and Varis' frequent run-ins with the Soviet military justice system resulted in his being posted to a penal battalion. Having firsthand witnessed the calous disregard for human life- his own life, first and formost- accepted (if not espoused) by the Soviet Army, Varis deserted, crossing through NATO lines during a suicidal forced march mine clearing operation. For the penal battalion, these operations consisted of walking, usually unarmed, through mine fields, and "finding" (i.e. detonating) the mines in front of the main assault force. Any hesitancy to complete the mission as ordered was rewarded with a 9mm Makarov bullet in the back of the head.

After surrendering (Varis prefers the term "defecting") to American forces in southwestern Poland, Varis spent several months in NATO POW camps in Germany, before convincing his captors that his hatred for the Soviet Union was genuine. He'd picked up a smattering of English during his days "working" in Riga's black market and, as a result, was selected to serve as a scout/translator for the 8th Infantry Division during their planned deep penetration raid along the Baltic coast into southern Latvia. Since joining the 8th, Varis hasn't necessarily been the model soldier, but he has proven himself an ardent anti-communist and a tough fighter. When the 8th, strung out across miles of the northern Polish countryside, started to disintegrate, Varis was sent west to find a unit of stragglers. He found them, and now searches with them for what remains of their parent formation.