laws-of-war
Were this character&#39;s actions legal in &#39;SAS: Rogue Heroes&#39;?
<p>In Episode 3 of &quot;<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10405370/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">SAS: Rogue Heroes</a>&quot;, L Detachment attack some Axis airfields in North Africa. The stated intent of the mission is to sabotage planes, trucks, etc., with explosives.</p>
<p>During this mission, the (fictionalised) Paddy Mayne and others gun down apparently unarmed (and moderately drunk) German and Italian airmen and engineers in their mess hall. They're enemy combatants in an active war zone, so on one hand it would seem justified. But on the other hand, they're unarmed, and were given no opportunity to surrender.</p>
<p>Note: I'm putting aside questions of whether it really happened as depicted. That's a question for Movies &amp; TV Stack Exchange.</p>
<p>My question is this: under the laws of warfare in effect at the time (i.e. the North Africa campaign of WW2) were these actions legal, or would they count as a war crime?</p>

<p>That an enemy combatant does not have their weapon on them right now does not render them a non-combatant. If the Axis soldiers had been unconscious, it would have been a different story, but &quot;mildly drunk and gun out of reach&quot; isn't enough.</p>
<p>It is forbidden have &quot;no quarter given&quot; as a policy, but that doesn't mean that an enemy has to be given an explicit chance to surrender, that just means that if the enemy does indeed surrender, that surrender can not just be denied. Most casualties in war happen due to artillery anyway, so a requirement to give the opportunity to surrender would be kinda meaningless.</p>
<p>Where such a situation gets messy is if some of the Axis soldiers had tried to surrender on the spot. The SAS would then be expected to try and shoot only the non-surrendering soldiers. If everyone surrenders, and the SAS kills them anyway because they don't have the ability to take prisoners, that's a clear warcrime.</p>
<p>Sources:
<a href="https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v1_rul_rule46" rel="noreferrer">https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v1_rul_rule46</a></p>
<p><a href="https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v1_rul_rule47" rel="noreferrer">https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v1_rul_rule47</a></p>
