Commando Order

Commando Order
Name	Commando Order
Date	October 18, 1942
Issued by	Oberkommando der Wehrmacht
Place	German-occupied Europe
Type	Directive

Commando Order

The Commando Order was a 1942 directive issued by the German high command that mandated the summary execution of captured Allied raiding parties and special operations personnel. It connected the leadership of the Wehrmacht and Oberkommando der Wehrmacht with policies affecting personnel from the British Commandos, Special Air Service, Office of Strategic Services, Soviet partisans, and other irregular formations during World War II. The order had immediate operational consequences for engagements such as raids on Lofoten Islands, Dieppe Raid, and operations in the Mediterranean theatre.

Background

The order emerged amid contest over responses to commando activity, unconventional warfare and increasing Allied special forces operations across occupied Europe and the Soviet Union. German leadership, including figures in the OKW, the Heer, the Kriegsmarine, and the Luftwaffe, faced pressure from political and security organs such as the Reichssicherheitshauptamt and the Gestapo to deter raids after incidents like the Operation Claymore and attacks linked to Partisan warfare in the Balkans. Strategic concerns intersected with political directives from senior Nazi officials including Adolf Hitler and military advisers like Wilhelm Keitel and Alfred Jodl, creating an environment in which an explicit order targeting captured irregulars was promulgated.

Text and Content of the Order

The written directive specified that Allied personnel captured while conducting raids, parachute assaults, or other special operations were not to be treated as prisoners of war but were to be executed immediately. The language tied decisions to perceived threats from forces such as the British Commandos, Norwegian resistance, French Resistance, and Soviet partisans, invoking concepts of deterrence and reprisal upheld by authorities including the RSHA and regional commanders like Curt von Gottberg. The order bypassed protections established by instruments such as the Geneva Convention (1929) by categorizing targets as unlawful combatants; it was transmitted through channels of the OKW to field formations, divisional staffs, and units operating in zones including the Western Front (World War II), the Eastern Front (World War II), and the Mediterranean theatre of World War II.

Implementation and Operational Effects

Field implementation varied by theater and command personality: some units in the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS followed the directive, while others hesitated under influence from commanders like Erwin Rommel or legal officers in the Abwehr and Heeresgruppe Mitte. Recorded incidents implicating the order include executions after coastal raids in the Channel Islands, reprisals against captured raiders near Dieppe, and actions against parachuted personnel in regions contested by Yugoslav Partisans and Greek Resistance forces. The order also affected engagements with operatives from the Special Operations Executive, Office of Strategic Services, and Free French Forces (World War II), shaping interrogation practices of organizations such as the SD and Gestapo and influencing the treatment of captured crews following actions like Operation Frankton.

Legal and Moral Implications

The directive contravened established international law norms embodied in treaties like the Geneva Convention (1929) and customary laws of armed conflict articulated in precedents such as the Hague Conventions (1899) and prior jurisprudence from the Lieber Code. Legal and moral objections were raised by military jurists and some commanders within the Wehrmacht and foreign observers, comparing the order to policies associated with the Night and Fog decree and other criminal directives issued by the Nazi Party. Ethical assessments considered the order’s effects on the principle of distinction and protections for hors de combat personnel, implicating debates involving scholars of jus in bello and commentators referencing wartime legal scholarship from institutions like the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Trials and Accountability

After the war, the Commando Order was a subject of prosecution in tribunals including the Nuremberg Trials and subsequent military tribunals where defendants such as senior officers in the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht and regional commanders were charged with war crimes. Testimony and documents were introduced regarding orders signed or transmitted by figures like Wilhelm Keitel and Alfred Jodl, and prosecutions involved allied legal teams from United Kingdom, United States, France, and Soviet Union delegations. Verdicts at trials of officials from the Wehrmacht and SS referenced the order when adjudicating unlawful killings of captured commandos, contributing to convictions and sentences in several high-profile cases.

Historical Assessments and Legacy

Historians and military analysts have debated the order’s place within broader patterns of criminality in Nazi Germany and its relationship to the institutional culture of the Wehrmacht. Works by scholars examining the military justice system, archives from the Bundesarchiv, and monographs on figures like Keitel and Jodl situate the order alongside policies such as the Commissar Order and anti-partisan directives. The legacy of the order informs contemporary military law discussions in institutions like the NATO legal community and continues to be cited in studies of special operations ethics, memorialization by veterans’ organizations such as Royal Navy associations, and commemorations in locations including Normandy and sites of partisan activity. Its historical significance is reflected in ongoing research into command responsibility and the evolution of international humanitarian law.

Category:World War II war crimes