Commando Order
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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 seamen), 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 miltary actions while not in uniform, would be turned over to the Sicherheitsdienst (SD or Nazi security service) for summary execution.
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Background
Hitler was known to have particular animosity for Allied 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.
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.
Sark Raid
On the night of 3-4 October, ten men of the 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.
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 proved 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.
Dieppe Raid
On August 19, 1942 during this raid, a Canadian brigadier elected (quite contrary to procedure) to take a copy of the operational order ashore. This bundle was subsequently seized by the Germans during the surrender and found its way to Hitler. Among the orders was an instruction to 'bind prisoners'. There may also have been a 'commando' manual on close-quarter fighting captured at Dieppe. (It should be appreciated this bundle was not carried by, nor taken from, any commando, and, in respect of commandos, any 'binding of prisoners' was not part of their orders. There are a number of photographs in various publications and in the Imperial War Museum, London, showing commandos returning from Dieppe not even holding onto their captured prisoners.)
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 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.
On October 7, Hitler personally penned a note in the Wehrmacht daily communiqué:
- 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.
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
- 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. Hitler later extended this treatment to captured Allied pilots, and the SD's role was taken over by the Gestapo.
Allied Casualties
The Commando Order was used to kill hundreds and possibly thousands of Allied Special Forces and behind-the-lines operators of the OSS, SOE, and other elements. Normally they would be handed over to the SD or Gestapo, transported to a Concentration Camp, and murdered there. (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 well into the dying days of the Third Reich.
Legality
The Geneva Conventions state that members of the Armed Forces, if captured, are prisoners of war, and as such, are to be treated humanely. Summary execution is, of course, not a humane treatment. 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, this order was in direct and deliberate violation.
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. 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). The order included measures designed to force them to obey despite their lack of enthusiasm. Generals like Erwin Rommel and Albert Kesselring did not obey the order but relied on the Geneva conventions.
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.