The point is that British and Allied Commandos went into action wearing the uniform of recognised British forces, and were therefore easily recognised as lawful combatants, the excuse that they were acting as 'Franc-tireur or spy' is absurd. On the  other hand Special Operations Executive (SOE) personnel knew that they were operating outside of the rules of war and were also aware that if captured they could expect no mercy - and indeed, most that were received none.  :: ... and the point about trying the responsible Nazis as 'war criminals' is that the 'Commando Order' went against the rules of war. It was illegal.  ::If British forces at Dieppe had behaved the way alleged, then it was for the German authorities to make a protest through neutral channels - such as the Swiss - and then for the British authorities to investigate, and then, if necessary, subject the persons responsible to courts martial on charges of murder, not for the opposing side to invoke summary justice willy-nilly. You see, if whatever was alleged to have occurred at Dieppe did happen, then it certainly wasn't official British Government policy, it would have been entirely unauthorised and would almost certainly have been strongly reprimanded by persons higher up. That's the difference between a responsible democratic government, and the bunch of nutters that then governed Nazi Germany and who caused untold misery and suffering to millions, both in their own country, and abroad.  ::There is one - perhaps unspoken - international rule of war that, put simply, is this: If you start an aggressive war then anything bad that subsequently happens to you is your own fault. Trying to shift blame for your subsequent ills elsewhere is likely to fall on deaf ears. The Nuremberg Trials may or may not have been 'victor's justice' but that was the defendants' own fault for starting and actively supporting an illegal war in the first place. BTW, I didn't make those rules, I'm just telling you what they - more or less - were, and are.  ::The 'Commando Order' was issued simply out of childish spite. That's why the persons responsible were tried at Nuremberg.  