"Killing the Enemy: Assassination Operations During WW2" Topic

"During World War II, the British formed a secret division, the 'SOE' or Special Operations Executive, in order to support resistance organisations in occupied Europe. It also engaged in 'targeted killing' – the assassination of enemy political and military leaders. The unit is famous for equipping its agents with tools for use behind enemy lines, such as folding motorbikes, miniature submarines and suicide pills disguised as coat buttons. But its activities are now also gaining attention as a forerunner to today's 'extra-legal' killings of wartime enemies in foreign territory, for example through the use of unmanned drones. Adam Leong's work evaluates the effectiveness of political assassination in wartime using four examples: Heydrich's assassination in Prague (Operation Anthropoid); the daring kidnap of Major General Kreipe in Crete by Patrick Leigh Fermor; the failed attempt to assassinate Rommel, known as Operation Flipper; and the American assassination of General Yamamoto"
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Amicalement
Armand

Well it seems like the author surely has put the "ass" in "assassination".

Agree. The four examples he gives were, to me, all valid military targets.

Jim

Yes, Enemy leadership at almost all levels are valid military targets. IMO also all four of those leadership "targets" were valid/"good"/been terminated with extreme prejudice …

A lot has to do with the motive.

The killing of Abraham Lincoln was an assassination. The war was over, it had no military impact and was pure revenge.

Killing ADMIRAL (not General) Yamamoto had a military purpose. Far from what some claim was simply a killing (or murder as they put it) for revenge for Pearl Harbor, Yamamoto remained one of Japan's foremost strategists. A talented military leader his lose would have a measurable impact on the course of the war.

Yes, Yamamoto was an ADM not GEN … DOH !