THE STRANGE D-DAY SAGA OF YANG KYOUNGJONG

 (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration)
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

It appears likely that the first enemy combatants captured by the Allied forces during the D-Day invasion of June 6, 1944, were not Germans. They were Koreans.

Yang Kyoungjong, one of the Koreans, joined the Japanese Army in 1938 after it had conquered Korea (it is not clear if he did so voluntarily or involuntarily). He was used as cannon fodder by the Japanese in their undeclared border war with the USSR and Mongolia. The Russians captured him and then used him as cannon fodder against the Germans. The Germans captured him and intended to use him as cannon fodder against the Allies. He was then apprehended by the Allies early on in the Normandy invasion. His three Korean companions who were rounded up with him had similar military experiences. 

It would have completed the cycle had the Americans then impressed Kyoungjong for use against the Japanese, but his captors thought at first that he was Japanese himself and instead kept him penned up as a prisoner of war in a camp in England (after all, he had been caught in a German uniform). 

After the war, he moved to Evanston, Illinois and lived there until he died in 1992. His children had no knowledge of his exploits until after his death.