The Commando Order was a top secret order issued by Adolf Hitler on October 18, 1942 stating that all commandos captured in Europe and Africa (but excluding sailors), should be immediately executed even if they attempted to surrender. Any man or small group of men with the uniform of commando or a similar unit, or any man undertaking military actions while not in uniform, would be turned over to the Sicherheitsdienst (SD or Nazi security service) for summary execution. Hitler redirects here. ... October 18 is the 291st day of the year (292nd in leap years). ... 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ... In military science, the term commando can refer to an individual, a military unit or a raiding style of military operation. ... World map showing Europe Political map (neighboring countries in Asia and Africa also shown) Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of the Earth. ... A world map showing the continent of Africa. ... Sicherheitsdienst (SD) sleeve insignia. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Background

Hitler was known to have particular animosity for Allied (more specifically British) commandos and paratroopers due to their unpredictability, their effect on German morale, their successes in Europe, Norway and North Africa, and his inability to devise any worthwhile countermeasures. Raiding escalated in 1942 and included the large scale Combined Operations' raids at St. Nazaire and Dieppe. Though the main assault on Dieppe failed, the Army commando attacks on the flank batteries were, on the whole, successful as was the main assault on St. Nazaire. The group of countries known as the Allies of World War II consisted of those nations opposed to the Axis Powers during the Second World War. ... An American Paratrooper using a T-10C series parachute Paratroopers are soldiers trained in parachuting and formed into an airborne force. ... World map showing Europe Political map (neighboring countries in Asia and Africa also shown) Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of the Earth. ...  Northern Africa (UN subregion)  geographic, including above North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent. ... 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ... Combined Operations was a department of the British War Office set up during World War II to harass the Germans on the European continent by means of raids carried out by use of combined naval and army forces. ... Operation Chariot was a British attack on the docks of St. ... Dieppes chert beach and cliff immediately following the raid on 19 August 1942. ... A 155 mm artillery shell fired by a United States 11th Marine regiment M-198 howitzer Historically, artillery refers to any engine used for the discharge of projectiles during war. ...

It is widely believed an occurrence at Dieppe and on a small raid on the Channel Island of Sark by the Small Scale Raiding Force (with some men of No. 12 Commando), brought Hitler's rage to a head. Alternative meaning: Channel Islands of California The Channel Islands are a group of islands off the coast of Normandy, France, in the English Channel. ... Flag of Sark Sark (in French, Sercq, in Sercquiais Sèr) is a small island of the Channel Islands, part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey. ... A Small Scale Raiding Force was initiated by Lord Louis Mountbatten, Chief of Combined Operations, in February/March 1942 to be a permanent ‘amphibious sabotage force’ of fifty men directly under his command. ...

Sark Raid

Main article: Operation Basalt

On the night of 3-4 October, ten men of the British Small Scale Raiding Force and No. 12 Commando (attached) made an offensive reconnaissance raid on the isle of Sark, Operation Basalt. In line with standard procedure the acquisition of prisoners was required. Nine of the raiders broke into a local's house while the tenth went to a covert rendezvous with an SOE agent. The occupant of the house, Frances Pittard, proved very informative and advised there were about 20 Germans in the nearby Dixcart Hotel. She also declined an offer to be taken back to England. During World War II, Operation Basalt was a small raid on the German occupied British Channel Island of Sark, on the night of 3/4 October, 1942. ... October 3 is the 276th day of the year (277th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... October 4 is the 277th day of the year (278th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Flag of Sark Sark (in French, Sercq, in Sercquiais Sèr) is a small island of the Channel Islands, part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey. ... The Special Operations Executive (SOE), sometimes referred to as the Baker Street Irregulars after Sherlock Holmess fictional group of spies, was a World War II organization initiated by Winston Churchill and Hugh Dalton in July 1940 as a mechanism for conducting warfare by means other than direct military engagement. ...

In front of the hotel was a long hutlike building, apparently unguarded. This annex comprised a corridor and five rooms wherein were five sleeping Germans, none found to be officers. The men were roused and taken outside whereafter the commandos decided to go on to the hotel and capture more of the enemy. To minimise the guard left with the captives, the commandos tied the prisoners hands with the toggle ropes of which each carried a six-foot (~1.83 m) length, and required them to hold up their trousers. The practise of removing belts and/or braces and tearing open the fly was quite a common technique the commandos used to make it as difficult as possible for captives to run away.

While this was being undertaken, one prisoner started shouting to alert those in the hotel and was instantly shot dead with a .38 revolver. The enemy now alerted, incoming fire from the hotel became considerable and the raiders elected to return to the beach with the remaining four prisoners. En route to the beach, three prisoners made a break. Whether or not some had freed their hands during the firefight has never been established, nor is it known whether all three broke at the same time. Two are believed to have been shot and one stabbed. The fourth was conveyed safely back to England and provided a mine of information. The raiders also evacuated an SOE agent who had been posing as a Polish labourer among forced labour on the island. The Colt Single Action Army, one of the most popular revolvers of all time For other uses, see Revolver (disambiguation). ... 90 mile beach Australia A view from above of Waikiki Beach A view from the rocks at Tamandaré Beach in Brazil A beach or strand is a geological formation consisting of loose rock particles such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, cobble, or even shell along the shoreline of a body... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq... Unfree labour is a generic or collective term for forms of work, especially in modern or early modern history, in which adults and/or children are employed without wages, or for a minimal wage. ...

Dieppe Raid

Main article: Dieppe Raid

On August 19, 1942 during this raid, a Canadian brigadier elected (against explicit orders) to take a copy of the operational order ashore.^[1] The order was subsequently discovered on the beach by the Germans and found its way to Hitler. Among the dozens of pages of orders was an instruction to 'bind prisoners'. (The orders were for the Canadian forces participating in the raid, and not the commandos.) Dieppes chert beach and cliff immediately following the raid on 19 August 1942. ... Brigadier is a rank which is used in different ways by different countries. ...

German response and escalation

A few days after the raid, the Germans issued a propaganda communiqué implying that at least one prisoner had escaped and two were shot while resisting having their hands tied. They also claimed this 'hand-tying' practice was used at Dieppe. Subseqently, on 9th October, Berlin announced that 1376 Allied prisoners (mainly Canadians from Dieppe), would henceforth be shackled. The British responded with a like shackling of German prisoners in Canada. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... October 9 is the 282nd day of the year (283rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Berlin is the capital city and a state of Germany. ...

This tit-for-tat shackling continued until the Swiss achieved agreement with the British to desist on December 12, and with the Germans some time later after they received further assurances from the British. However, by this time many German camps had abandoned the pointless practice or reduced it to merely leaving a pile of shackles in a prison billet as a token. December 12 is the 346th day (347th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 19 days remaining. ...

On October 7, Hitler personally penned a note in the Wehrmacht daily communiqué: October 7 is the 280th day of the year (281st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Wehrmacht troops of the Heer (military land forces) marching at a military parade in honour of the 50th birthday of Adolf Hitler, on April 20th, 1939. ...

In future, all terror and sabotage troops of the British and their accomplices, who do not act like soldiers but rather like bandits, will be treated as such by the German troops and will be ruthlessly eliminated in battle, wherever they appear.

Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening an enemy through subversion, obstruction, disruption, and/or destruction. ...

The order in effect

On October 18 after much deliberation by High Command lawyers, officers and staff, Hitler issued his Commando Order or Kommandobefehl in secret, with only 12 copies. The following day Army Chief of Staff Alfred Jodl, distributed copies too with an appendix stating that the order was "intended for commanders only and must not under any circumstances fall into enemy hands." The order itself stated that October 18 is the 291st day of the year (292nd in leap years). ... Generaloberst Alfred Jodl Alfred Jodl (May 10, 1890 - October 16, 1946) was a Wehrmacht leader. ...

From now on all men operating against German troops in so-called commando raids, even if they are in uniform, whether armed or unarmed, in battle or in flight, are to be annihilated to the last man.... Even if these individuals on discovery ... give themselves up as prisoners, no pardon is on any account to be given.

The order falsely claims that British commandos had been ordered to kill prisoners. That was not the case, quite the opposite was true; the men at Sark acted as they felt appropriate for the situation. The SD's role was later taken over by the Gestapo. The Deaths Head emblem similar to Skull and crossbones, often used as the insignia of the Gestapo The (contraction of Geheime Staatspolizei; secret state police) was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. ...

Allied Casualties

The Commando Order was invoked to order the death of an unknown number of Allied Special Forces and behind-the-lines operators of the OSS, SOE, and other special forces elements.^{[citation needed]} "Commandos" of these types captured were turned over to German security and police forces and transported to concentration camps for execution. The Gazette citation reporting the awarding of the G.C. to Yeo-Thomas describes this process in detail. The first victims were seven officers of Operation Musketoon, who were shot in Sachsenhausen on the morning of 23rd October 1942, and Commando Order executions were carried out through the remainder of the war. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime (but not direct) precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency. ... Wing Commander Forest Frederick Edward Yeo-Thomas, G.C., Croix de Guerre (with palms), Insignia of the Commandeur of the Légion dHonneur, (June 17, 1901 - February 26, 1964) was the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent codenamed The White Rabbit during World War II. His particular sphere of... The George Cross (GC) is the highest Commonwealth decoration awarded for acts of conspicuous gallantry not in the face of the enemy, while the Victoria Cross is awarded for valour in the face of the enemy. ... Wing Commander Forest Frederick Edward Yeo-Thomas, G.C., Croix de Guerre (with palms), Insignia of the Commandeur of the Légion dHonneur, (June 17, 1901 - February 26, 1964) was the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent codenamed The White Rabbit during World War II. His particular sphere of... Operation Musketoon was an Anglo-Norwegian raid against a German-held Generator Station at Glomfjord, Norway in September, 1942 during the Second World War. ... Arbeit Macht Frei gate Sachsenhausen was a concentration camp in Germany, operating between 1936 and 1950. ... October 23 is the 296th day of the year (297th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 69 days remaining. ... 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ...

Legality

The Geneva Conventions state that soldiers of any Armed Force, once captured, are considered prisoners of war and as such are to be treated humanely. Furthermore, if these prisoner's identities were in question, they were to be treated as prisoners of war until their identity was revealed. As Germany was a signatory of this convention, the Commando Order was in direct and deliberate violation. Development of the Geneva Conventions from 1864 to 1949. ...

Hitler and his subordinates knew that the order was illegal - that is obvious by the fact it was prepared in only twelve copies and that special measures were ordered to keep it secret.^{[citation needed]} He also knew the order would be unpopular with the professional military, in particular the part of the order that stated that the order would stand even if captured Commandos were in uniform (plainclothes commandos could be treated as insurgents or spies under International Law).^{[citation needed]} The order included measures designed to force them to obey despite their lack of enthusiasm.^{[citation needed]} This article or section is missing references or citation of sources. ...

Aftermath

After the war, German officers who carried out the illegal executions under the Commando Order were found guilty at war crimes trials, including the Nuremberg Trials. The Commando Order was one of the specifications in the charge against Generaloberst (Colonel-General) Jodl, who was convicted and hanged. The Süddeutsche Zeitung announces The Verdict in Nuremberg. ... Colonel General is a senior military rank which is used in some of the world’s militaries. ... Colonel General is a senior military rank which is used in some of the world’s militaries. ... Generaloberst Alfred Jodl Alfred Jodl (May 10, 1890 - October 16, 1946) was a Wehrmacht leader. ...

See also

• Commissar Order

The commissar order was an order given by Adolf Hitler prior to Operation Barbarossa that any captured Soviet political officer be immediately shot. ...

External links

• Full English translation of the order
• Kommandobefehl in the original German