| By the very letter of the law what he did can be called 'deception' which is against the Geneva conventions, in reality what he probably though he was doing was using a ruse, which is not against the conventions. Faced with a serious threat of snipers he chose on the spot to go against them alone, out numbered with only a little of a ruse to even up the chances. A very brave thing to do. If it wasn't then he wouldn't have got the VC.
It's very easy for academics to sit safe at their desks 60 years on and miles from any battlefield, and sift through history in order to find some contention with which to make their names by making sensation where there is none. They shouldn't dirty the name of a brave man who is no longer here to defend himself. They should leave that to the tabloid press.
Let's not forget a few things. If he had been caught he would have been shot on the spot. In the some parts of the war the Germans used whole units of english speaking soldiers dressed as american MPs to decieve and confuse. It would have been simpler, and much more probable today for an air strike to be called in and the entire area suspected of hiding snipers to be laid flat, with rank disregard for the enemy, property or the environment, and likely not to leave any enemy remains to bury. Perfectly legal, but any more or less a 'crime'?
__________________  M3... the ship of the desert 2003
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