must be read in conjunction with"The fact is that most German troops who encountered French partisans didn’t kick down the nearest Farmhouse door and start murdering innocent women and children in such an horrific fashion simply because some of their buddies had been killed."
andit was a reprisal for partisan or terrorist activity in which German military personnel were killed and wounded. As well as the firefight between the maquisards and the group with which Schleuter went to the farm to requisition supplies, there were reports of an SS officer and his driver being murdered by terrorists in the area
Notably - Paddy's account was fuller than the ...pared-down...Fleet Street version.Leutnant Schleuter, who was involved in the firefight with the FTP, asked his superiors in Tours for orders and was told to attack Maillé.
Whether or nor he was just meant to enter the village and search for partisans remains open to question. It seems unlikely that his superiors intended a massacre, given the embarrassment over the excessive nature of the reprisals in Oradour-sur-Glane a month and a half before. The commander of the unit responsible for Oradour had been facing a court martial, which was only averted when he met a convenient death in action in Normandy, allegedly assisted by a couple of brother officers who are said to have held him up to take an enemy bullet. Whatever the case, Lt Schleuter attacked Maillé with infantry and artillery, killing more than a third of the inhabitants, and notes were left on bodies stating "This is punishment for terrorists and their accomplices.".
What we DON'T have is normal German activity in degree OR in context. What we DO have is a situation where something entirely regrettable MAY have happened because of a misunderstanding in what the officer in charge was told. We don't even know HE telephoned Tours...or that whoever may have done so on his orders actually spoke to Schleuter's OC ...and whether or not whoever was on the other end of the phone in Tours was passing down instructions second-hand...
Remember..."send three-and-fourpence, I'm going to a dance"?
This event was 63 years ago; as the journalist says, only the charge of Murder now remains for any judicial enquiry. Does a possible mistake in communications warrant 85-90 year old vets being charged with murder?...
...because THIS is the aspect that the Hostage Case muddies; "I was only obeying orders" may now have been legally judged NOT to be a suitable defence...in most other crimes EXCEPT MURDER. BUT the Hostage case ALSO enshrined in law at the time that reprisal killings were NOT illegal...just the degree that reprisal shootings were taken to was what was at question.
And if the "crime" was one of degree, not "motive" - then it's NOT murder...and as all other statutes applicable have lapsed with time, there shouldn't be a judicial investigation. A fact-finding investigation, yes by all means - there should be NO blank areas after 63+ years - but the Hostage Case means a "murder" investigation isn't appropriate. And the investigation is too late for anything else.