[Oberon]

Originally Posted by ikalugin

I have some issues with it for example:

 

in episode 2 you see the running figure, which is clearly armed with a british rifle, why should I have engaged it?

 

Good spotting, but the moral of the situation is a bit more abstract than that, what if...for example, you couldn't see the rifle the soldier was carrying due to the weather conditions? You have a split second decision to engage or not, and standard orders were to engage when in a battlefield situation, and if it was a friendly then that was the risk that the soldier advancing towards you took. Many people did hold fire, and lots of lives were saved in that respect, but many were also lost, if it had been a German soldier then he would have a split second advantage in which he could feasibly kill either yourself or one of your men. That's why the SOP was written.
Likewise, sadly, the rules on prisoners. The reason I did so badly in the second mission was because I let the German machinegunner live, I knew that taking him prisoner was pointless under the circumstances, but I could not bring myself to kill him. Morally this was the correct decision, but tactically I could very well have doomed my entire squad.
It's tough at the top, as they say.