Editing Commando Order (section)

==Text==
{{one source|section|date=July 2018}}
[[Image:Jodl surrender front view.JPG|thumb|General [[Alfred Jodl]] (between Major [[Wilhelm Oxenius]] to the left and ''Generaladmiral'' [[Hans-Georg von Friedeburg]] to the right) signing the [[German Instrument of Surrender]] at [[Reims]], France, 7 May 1945]]
On 18 October, after much deliberation by High Command lawyers, officers, and staff, Hitler issued the Commando Order or {{lang|de|Kommandobefehl}} in secret, with only 12 copies. The following day Alfred Jodl distributed 22 copies 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:

{{blockquote|
# For a long time now our opponents have been employing in their conduct of the war, methods which contravene the International Convention of Geneva. The members of the so-called Commandos behave in a particularly brutal and underhanded manner; and it has been established that those units recruit criminals not only from their own country but even former convicts set free in enemy territories. From captured orders it emerges that they are instructed not only to tie up prisoners, but also to kill out-of-hand unarmed captives who they think might prove an encumbrance to them, or hinder them in successfully carrying out their aims. Orders have indeed been found in which the killing of prisoners has positively been demanded of them.
# In this connection it has already been notified in an Appendix to Army Orders of 7.10.1942. that in future, Germany will adopt the same methods against these Sabotage units of the British and their Allies; i.e. that, whenever they appear, they shall be ruthlessly destroyed by the German troops.
# I order, therefore:— From now on all men operating against German troops in so-called Commando raids in Europe or in Africa, are to be annihilated to the last man. This is to be carried out whether they be soldiers in uniform, or saboteurs, with or without arms; and whether fighting or seeking to escape; and it is equally immaterial whether they come into action from Ships and Aircraft, or whether they land by parachute. Even if these individuals on discovery make obvious their intention of giving themselves up as prisoners, no pardon is on any account to be given. On this matter a report is to be made on each case to Headquarters for the information of Higher Command.
# Should individual members of these Commandos, such as agents, saboteurs etc., fall into the hands of the Armed Forces through any means – as, for example, through the Police in one of the Occupied Territories – they are to be instantly handed over to the [[Sicherheitsdienst|SD]]<br/>To hold them in military custody – for example in POW camps, etc., – even if only as a temporary measure, is strictly forbidden.
# This order does not apply to the treatment of those enemy soldiers who are taken prisoner or give themselves up in open battle, in the course of normal operations, large-scale attacks; or in major assault landings or airborne operations. Neither does it apply to those who fall into our hands after a sea fight, nor to those enemy soldiers who, after air battle, seek to save their lives by parachute.
# I will hold all Commanders and Officers responsible under Military Law for any omission to carry out this order, whether by failure in their duty to instruct their units accordingly, or if they themselves act contrary to it.<ref name=CO/>}}

===Allied casualties===
Dozens of Allied special forces soldiers were executed as the result of this order.<ref>{{Cite web |title=British commandos {{!}} Raids, Training, World War II, & Normandy Invasion {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/British-commandos#ref348167 |access-date=2024-11-19 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

"Commandos" of those types captured were turned over to German security and police forces and transported to concentration camps for execution. The Gazette [[F. F. E. Yeo-Thomas#George Cross citation|citation]] reporting the awarding of the [[George Cross|G.C.]] to [[F. F. E. Yeo-Thomas|Yeo-Thomas]] describes this process in detail.{{Fact|date=November 2024}}

POW Allied airmen were also killed via the "Commando Order".<ref>[http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/Victims.htm List of Allied POWS killed after capture]</ref>{{Better reference|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable ([[WP:NOTRS]]).|date=November 2024}}{{Failed verification|date=November 2024}}

Victims include:
* The first victims were two officers and five other ranks of [[Operation Musketoon]], who were shot in [[Sachsenhausen concentration camp|Sachsenhausen]] on the morning of 23 October 1942.
* In November 1942, British survivors of [[Operation Freshman]] were executed.
* In December 1942, British [[Royal Marines|Royal Marine]] commandos captured during [[Operation Frankton]] were executed under this order. After the captured Royal Marines were executed by a naval firing squad in Bordeaux, the Commander of the [[Kriegsmarine|German Navy]] Admiral [[Erich Raeder]] wrote in the ''Seekriegsleitung'' war diary that the executions of the Royal Marines were something "new in international law since the soldiers were wearing uniforms".<ref>{{Citation | last = Bird | first = Keith | title = Erich Raeder | place = Annapolis | publisher = Naval Institute Press | year = 2006 | page = 201}}.</ref> American historian Charles Thomas wrote that Raeder's remarks about the executions in the ''Seekriegsleitung'' war diary seemed to be some sort of ironic comment, which might have reflected a bad conscience on the part of Raeder.<ref>{{Citation | last = Thomas | first = Charles | title = The German Navy in the Nazi Era | place = Annapolist | publisher = Naval Institute Press | year = 1990 | pages = 212–13}}.</ref>
* On 30 July 1943, the captured seven-man crew of the [[Royal Norwegian Navy]] motor torpedo boat ''[[MTB 345]]'' were executed by the Germans in [[Bergen]], [[Norway]] on the basis of the Commando Order.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Nøkleby |first=Berit |author-link=Berit Nøkleby |editor-link=Hans Fredrik Dahl |editor-last=Dahl |editor-first=Hans Fredrik |encyclopedia=[[Norsk krigsleksikon 1940-1945]] |title=MTB 345 |url=http://mediabase1.uib.no/krigslex/m/m4.html#mtb-345 |access-date=28 October 2012 |year=1995 |publisher=Cappelen |location=Oslo |language=no |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100102112613/http://mediabase1.uib.no/krigslex/m/m4.html#mtb-345 |archive-date=2 January 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* In January 1944, British Lt. [[Attempts to escape Oflag IV-C|William A. Millar]] escaped from [[Colditz Castle]] and vanished; it is speculated he was captured and killed in a concentration camp.
* In March 1944, 15 soldiers of the [[United States Army|U.S. Army]], including two officers, landed on the Italian coast as part of an OSS operation code-named [[Operations Ginny I and II|Ginny II]]. They were captured and executed.
* After the [[Normandy landings]], 34 [[Special Air Service|SAS]] soldiers and a [[United States Army Air Forces|USAAF]] pilot were captured during [[Operation Bulbasket]] and executed. Most were shot, but three were killed by lethal injection while recovering from wounds in a hospital.<ref>{{Cite news | location = UK | url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article4834062.ece | title = SAS veterans honour wartime comrades who died |work=The Times |date=27 September 2008 |page=32}}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}<!--citation for Operation Bulbasket--><!--possibly a dead link as of Dec. 2011--></ref>
* On 9 August 1944, a U.S. airman POW was killed in Germany; postwar 4 involved were executed; others served prison terms.
* In September 1944, seven British Commandos (along with 40 Dutch members of ''[[Englandspiel]]'') were executed over two days at [[Mauthausen concentration camp|KZ Mauthausen]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showthread.php?t=30848 |title=47 allied airmen killed in KZ Camp-who were they?|publisher=12oclockhigh.net – Luftwaffe and Allied Air Forces Discussion Forum}}</ref>
* On 21 November 1944 U.S. airman and prisoner of war Lt. Americo S. Galle was executed at [[Enschede]], Holland by ''SS-[[Unterscharführer]]'' Herbert Germoth<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fieldsofhonor-database.com/index.php/american-war-cemetery-ardennes-g/50832-galle-americo-s|title=GALLE, Americo S|publisher=fieldsofhonor-database.com}}</ref> by order of SS General [[Karl Eberhard Schöngarth]].{{citation needed|date=February 2019}}
* On 9 December 1944, five U.S. airmen of the [[20th Bomb Squadron|20th Bombardment Squadron]] were captured and executed near [[Kaplice|Kaplitz, Czechoslovakia]]. [[Franz Strasser]] was tried and executed on 10 December 1945 for participating in the murders.
* Between October 1944 and March 1945, nine men of the United States Army Air Forces were summarily executed after being shot down and captured in [[Jürgen Stroop]]'s district. Their known names were Sergeant Willard P. Perry, Sergeant Robert W. Garrison, Private Ray R. Herman, Second Lieutenant William A. Duke, Second Lieutenant Archibald B. Monroe, Private Jimmie R. Heathman, Lieutenant William H. Forman, and Private Robert T. McDonald.<ref name=Moczarski>Kazimierz Moczarski: Rozmowy z katem (Interview with an Executer, 1981), pp. 276–277.</ref> When Polish journalist [[Kazimierz Moczarski]] reminded him that the killing of POWs was defined as criminal under the Hague and Geneva Conventions, Stroop responded, "It was common knowledge that American flyers were terrorists and murderers who used methods contrary to civilised norms... We were given a statement to that effect from the highest authorities. It was accompanied by an order from [[Heinrich Himmler]]."<ref>Moczarski (1981), p. 250.</ref> As a result, he explained, all nine POWs had been taken to the forest and given "a ration of lead for their American necks".<ref>Moczarski (1981), pp. 251–252.</ref>
* On 24 January 1945, nine OSS men, including Lt. Holt Green of the Dawes mission, others of the Houseboat mission, four British SOE agents, and [[Associated Press|AP]] [[war correspondent]] [[Joseph Morton (correspondent)|Joseph Morton]], were shot at [[Mauthausen concentration camp|Mauthausen]] by ''SS-[[Hauptsturmführer]]'' [[Georg Bachmayer]] on orders of [[Ernst Kaltenbrunner]].{{Sfn | Persico | 1979 | pp = 222, 285, 279}} Morton was the only Allied correspondent to be executed by the [[Axis powers|Axis]] during World War II.
* In 1945, Lt. [[Jack Hendrick Taylor|Jack Taylor]] USNR and the Dupont mission were captured by the men of Gestapo agent Johann Sanitzer. Sanitzer asked the [[Reich Security Main Office|RSHA]] for instructions on a possible deal that Taylor proposed, but Kaltenbrunner's staff reminded him "of Hitler's edict that all captured officers attached to foreign missions were to be executed".{{Sfn | Persico | 1979 | p = 140}} Taylor was convicted of [[espionage]], though he claimed to be an ordinary soldier. He was sent to Mauthausen.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-the-story-of-the-world-war-ii-hero-who-became-the-first-navy-seal-2015-7|title=Here's the story of the World War II hero who became the first Navy SEAL|publisher=Business Insider }}</ref> He survived, barely, but gathered evidence, and was eventually a witness at the Nuremberg trials.{{Refn | group = "lower-alpha" | Taylor was forced to work on a crew that built a crematorium. His weight fell to {{convert|112|lb|kg st}} and he developed dysentery. Taylor tried to memorise atrocities told to him by other prisoners, in the mutual hope that he could eventually bring justice to the perpetrators. He survived the camp only because a friendly Czech "trustee" of the Nazi guards, Milos Stransky, had seen his execution order and burned it. After liberation, he returned to the camp to document and gather evidence, including the "death books" that recorded made-up and true versions of each prisoner's death.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/ww2/dupont.html |title=The Dupont Mission (October 13, 1944 – May 5, 1945) |publisher=American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise }}</ref> The evidence was later used at war crimes trials. He was also a witness at those trials. The rest of the mission, Graf, Ebbing, and Huppmann, were not technically "foreign soldiers" so the Commando order probably did not technically apply to them, although they were sentenced to death for being traitors. They escaped and survived.{{Sfn | Persico | 1979 | pp = 225, 310–313}}}}
* On 13 February 1945, eight survivors of a [[Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress|B-17 crash]] 48163 of the [[772nd Expeditionary Airlift Squadron|772nd Bombardment Squadron]] in Austria were captured; four survived the war while four were executed.<ref>[https://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/282260-execution-of-wwii-air-crews-terror-flyers-robert-l-stricker/ execution-of-wwii-air-crews-terror-flyers-robert-l-stricker/]</ref>
* On 20 February 1945, OSS agent [[Roderick Stephen Hall]] was murdered by the SS in [[Bolzano]], Italy. In 1946 his murderers, who used the Commando Order as their defence, were executed for the murder of Hall, pilot Charles Parker, SAS officers Roger Littlejohn and David Crowley as well as U.S. airmen George Hammond, Hardy Narron, and Medard Tafoya.<ref>{{Cite book| author=Patrick K. O'Donnell |title=The Brenner Assignment: The Untold Story of the Most Daring Spy Mission of World War II | publisher=[[Da Capo Press]] | year=2008 |isbn=978-0-7867-2651-6}}</ref>

===War crime===
The laws of war in 1942 stated, "it is especially forbidden... to declare that [[no quarter]] will be given". This was established under Article 23 (d) of the [[Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907|1907 Hague Convention]] ''IV – The Laws and Customs of War on Land''.<ref name="icrc">{{cite web |url=http://www.icrc.org/ihl/385ec082b509e76c41256739003e636d/1d1726425f6955aec125641e0038bfd6?OpenDocument |title=Convention (IV) respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land and its annex: Regulations concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land. The Hague, 18 October 1907. |publisher=[[International Committee of the Red Cross]] |access-date=16 July 2013}}</ref> The [[Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War|Geneva Convention of 1929]], which Germany had ratified, defined who should be considered a [[prisoner of war]] on capture, which included enemy soldiers in proper uniforms, and how they should be treated. Under both the Hague and Geneva Conventions, it was legal to execute "spies and saboteurs" disguised in civilian clothes<ref name="HT">{{Citation | url = http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/WCC/List4.htm#NOTES | contribution = The hostages trial, trial of Wilhelm List and others: Notes | publisher = [[University of the West of England]] | title = United Nations War Crimes Commission. Law Reports of Trials of War Criminals | volume = VIII | year = 1949 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20050208103815/http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/WCC/List4.htm#NOTES | archive-date = 2005-02-08 }}.</ref><ref>''[[Ex parte Quirin]]''</ref> or uniforms of the enemy.<ref name="ICRC">{{cite web |title=Rule 107. Spies |publisher=[[International Review of the Red Cross]] |url=http://www.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v1_rul_rule107 |access-date=July 15, 2013}}</ref><ref>[http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/WCC/skorzeny.htm Trial of Otto Skorzeny and Others] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081002175149/http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/WCC/skorzeny.htm |date=October 2, 2008 }}</ref> The Germans claimed in paragraph one of their order that they were acting only in retaliation in a ''quid pro quo'' for claimed Allied violation of the Geneva Convention regarding the execution of prisoners and other heinous acts;<ref name=CO/> however, insofar as the Commando Order applied to soldiers in proper uniforms,<ref>{{cite book |title=The trial of German major war criminals: proceedings of the International military tribunal sitting at Nuremberg, Germany, Volume 4 |author=International Military Tribunal |page=8 |year=1946 |publisher=H.M. Stationery }}</ref> it was in direct and deliberate violation of both the customary laws of war and Germany's treaty obligations.{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|The Hague regulations were found to be customary law by the judges sitting at the [[Nuremberg Trials]]<ref>{{Citation | contribution-url = http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/imt/proc/judlawre.htm | contribution = Judgement: The Law Relating to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity | title = Avalon Project | publisher = [[Yale Law School]] | title-link = Avalon Project | access-date = 5 May 2007 | archive-date = 8 September 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160908231902/http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/imt/proc/judlawre.htm | url-status = dead }}.</ref>}}

The execution of Allied commandos without trial was also a violation of Article 30 of the 1907 Hague Convention ''IV – The Laws and Customs of War on Land'': "A spy taken in the act shall not be punished without previous trial."<ref name="icrc" /> That provision includes only soldiers caught behind enemy lines in disguises, and not those wearing proper uniforms. Soldiers in proper uniforms cannot be punished for being lawful combatants and must be treated as prisoners of war upon capture except those disguised in civilian clothes or uniforms of the enemy for military operations behind enemy lines.<ref name="ICRC" /><ref>{{cite book |title=Romantics at War: Glory and Guilt in the Age of Terrorism |url=https://archive.org/details/romanticsatwar00geor |url-access=registration |author=George P. Fletcher |page=[https://archive.org/details/romanticsatwar00geor/page/106 106] |year=2002 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=0-691-00651-2 }}<!--|accessdate=16 July 2013--></ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Ethics of Spying: A Reader for the Intelligence Professional |editor=Jan Goldman |page=149 |year=2009 |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield|Scarecrow Press]] |isbn=978-0-8108-6198-5 }}<!--|accessdate=16 July 2013--></ref>

The fact that Hitler's staff took special measures to keep the order secret, including the limitation of its printing to 12 initial copies, strongly suggests that it was known to be illegal.<ref>{{Citation | publisher = International Military Tribunal | title = Blue Series | volume = 4 | page = 445}}.</ref> He also knew the order would be unpopular with the professional military, particularly the part that stated it would stand even if captured commandos were in proper uniforms (in contrast to the usual provision of [[international law]] that only commandos disguised in civilian clothes or uniforms of the enemy could be treated as insurgents or spies, as stated in the ''[[Ex parte Quirin]]'', the [[Hostages Trial]], and the trial of [[Otto Skorzeny]] and others). The order included measures designed to force military staff to obey its provisions.<ref name="USGPO_translation"/><!--specifically, paragraph 3.6-->

Some German commanders, including [[Erwin Rommel]], had refused to relay the order to their troops since they considered it to be contrary to honourable conduct.<ref>{{cite book|last=Walzer |first = Michael |year=2006 |title=Just and unjust wars: a moral argument with historical illustrations |edition=4th, revised |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=0-465-03707-0 |page= 38 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=kZnx7WVJbeUC&pg=PA38}}</ref>