Orders that would result in your death

[FSTO]

All well and good to quote the regs, and a good couple of theoretical examples, but does anyone have an actual example of where a Canadian soldier/officer was given such an order and carried it out?

Apologies if anyone actually did give one, the way I read it they all involved other countries or examples...

Well I guess you could site every soldier who tried to step out off the landing craft into the slaughterhouse in Dieppe is a pretty good example.

 

[Old Sweat]

Further to the above, there too many instances to mention where troops were ordered into action in situations where there was the real possibility of death. Darn near every attack in both World Wars and Korea could fall into that category, and remember Op Medusa for example. Going even farther back, the first example I can think of is Leliefontein on 7 Nov 1900. Lt Richard Turner of the RCD led his troop against a stronger Boer force to enable the Left Section of D Bty to make its escape. Lt Edward Morrison of D Bty wrote after the event that an unidentified dragoon said to him as he rode forward words to the effect that "I guess this will be our end." Despite that, the dragoons willingly followed their officer, who had already been wounded and was covered in his own blood, into action and prevailed.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Further to the above, there too many instances to mention where troops were ordered into action in situations where there was the real possibility of death. Darn near every attack in both World Wars and Korea could fall into that category, and remember Op Medusa for example. Going even farther back, the first example I can think of is Leliefontein on 7 Nov 1900. Lt Richard Turner of the RCD led his troop against a stronger Boer force to enable the Left Section of D Bty to make its escape. Lt Edward Morrison of D Bty wrote after the event that an unidentified dragoon said to him as he rode forward words to the effect that "I guess this will be our end." Despite that, the dragoons willingly followed their officer, who had already been wounded and was covered in his own blood, into action and prevailed.

Audax et Celer 

 

[Greymatters]

Well I guess you could site every soldier who tried to step out off the landing craft into the slaughterhouse in Dieppe is a pretty good example.

I would agree that all of the troops stepping off the boat shared a possibility of death, but not a certain or high probability of death.  Certainly those who stepped off first faced a greater risk than those who followed. 

In keeping with the original post, and in a modern setting, I think the person who asked the question was inferring about situations where possible death becomes probable or at least very high very selected members of the group as opposed to all at the same time.

I.e. every member of a patrol in Afghanistan shares the same possibility of death/injury when they depart the base.  But if that particular patrol comes under fire, certain members will face a higher possibility, such as an order to 'take two men and take out that machine gun'.

Does that example make sense?

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

On a facetious note: On my BOC, we used to joke that the black line on which we signed our enrolment papers was actually micro-text that read: "I, being of sound mind and fully understanding the consequences of my action, hereby forfeit my life to Her Majesty the Queen of Canada".

But, more seriously, I believe the original question was:

As a naval officer, what situations exist where you may be given an order which would result in your death?

I will admit a bias for mine warfare in view of my involvement in it but, it seems to me that the question applies directly to the officers serving onboard mine countermeasure vessels. We are the only type of ship that is wilfully and purposefully put into a known mine field, no matter what. Everybody else is diverted out. Moreover, the design and protective measures built into mine countermeasure vessels means that they have little to no capacity to defend themselves against any other threat, yet are required by the circumstances to expose themselves fully to these threats.

A good example of this is Operation Neptune, just before the landings, when the minesweepers had to clear ten channels all the way to the beaches with no protection against air, surface or shore-based threats and a time frame so short that even minesweeping had to be done at greater than speeds consistent with good self-protection practices.

Here is a sample of the orders given to the sweeping formation:

Task to be carried out:
'(a) The clearance of Channel 9 is to be continued to the Lowering position regardless of enemy interference and casualties.'   

'(b) In the event of enemy attack the sweeping formation MUST be preserved and the attack fought off with the best available means.'   

'(c) No ship must be allowed to sink in the swept channel.'

Anyone familiar with the difficulty of managing the course and speed of a minesweeper, with gear streamed, after its been blown up by a mine, will know that the last order, don't sink in the swept channel, is basically a death warrant on the engine room personnel and likely a good deal of the boatswain.

In all 43 minesweepers out of 255 were lost in Operation Neptune. No other class of ships in that operation, not even the landing crafts, suffered losses in such proportion.

A good historical read on this can be found at the following US site:

http://www.halcyon-class.co.uk/D%20Day/neptune%20minesweeping.htm