North Africa. Blistering heat that bakes you alive. Sand in your teeth, your eyes, in your very soul. Then the word comes directly from Hitler. The Commando Order. No trial, no compassion. Any captured Allied commando is to be shot immediately. That’s all.
But in the desert it’s a different ball game. You fight hard, you take prisoners, you let them live. Because tomorrow you may be the one with your hands up.
Rommel realized that. The Desert Fox was no desk general shouting from Berlin. He knew the SAS and the Long Range Desert Group. Tough, hard, obstinate men. Soldiers. Killing them after they had surrendered was not only unsavory, it was foolish. Do that and the British will do the same.
So Rommel disobeyed the order. When his men captured commandos they were treated as prisoners of war. Fed, guarded, still alive. No grand oration. No theatrics. Just a plain refusal to play Berlin’s game.
Sometimes the wisest move in a crazy war is to recognize when not to engage in the craziness in the first place.
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