A suicide mission is a task and/or mission which is extremely dangerous or dangerous to the point where the people involved are not expected to survive, often rendering the persons as "expendable" for the mission. The term is sometimes extended to include suicide attacks, such as kamikaze pilots and other suicide bombings, whose perpetrators kill themselves and their opponents or destroy other enemy targets.
Military and wartime
In a military context, soldiers can be ordered to perform very dangerous tasks or can undertake them on their initiative. For example, in the First World War, French soldiers mutinied en masse in 1917, after appalling losses convinced them that their participation at the front would inevitably lead to their deaths, and in October 2004, during the Iraq War, 19 soldiers in the US Army refused orders to drive unarmored fuel trucks near Baghdad, calling the task a "suicide mission". Those soldiers faced investigations for breakdown of discipline.
Suicide missions can also be an act of desperation, such as a last stand, or to save lives. The latter end of the Battle of Stalingrad could be seen as a suicide mission from the German perspective, as they were ordered to fight to the death with no option of surrendering nor the chance of escape.
Special forces
Special forces units are often sent on missions that are exceedingly dangerous with the hope that their superior training and abilities will allow them to complete them successfully and survive. An example is an attempt by two U.S. Delta Force snipers to protect a downed helicopter pilot (Michael Durant) from being killed or captured by militia during the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993. While the sniper team held off advancing militia forces long enough for the pilot to survive, both snipers were killed, and the pilot was eventually captured but then later released. However, even special forces groups refuse to participate in some missions. Operation Mikado, a plan for a Special Air Service raid on Río Grande, Tierra del Fuego, during the 1982 Falklands War, was ultimately not executed due in part to significant hostility from members of the SAS, who saw the mission as exceedingly risky.
Strafbataillon
The men of the Strafbataillon's probationary unit (Probation Battalion) and (Penal Division 500) had to prove themselves through "exceptional bravery" on dangerous front-line missions. Otherwise, they faced the execution of the imposed sentence, transfer to the Emsland camps, or punishment units.Ulrich Baumann et al. (editor): Was damals Recht war… Soldaten und Zivilisten vor Gerichten der Wehrmacht. Berlin 2008, , Page 188.
Disposable use of troops in World War I
Gallipoli campaign
Attacks against stronger opponents
(first century AD)
The Sicarii Jewish sect are sometimes described as carrying out "suicidal" attacks against their enemies. Riaz Hassan said that the first-century AD Jewish Sicarii sect carried out "suicidal missions to kill" Hellenized Jews they considered immoral collaborators. An article in BBC Arabic claimed the Sicarii were the first group to carry out suicide attacks. In September 2023 the BBC responded to a complaint, deleted the Sicarii and reworded the second example so that the revised article called the Order of Assassins (Ismaeli Shia) the first. However, both groups were killed by their opponents, so neither fit the narrower definition of a suicide attack.
Order of Assassins (1090 to 1275 AD)
The Order of Assassins (, ) were from a sect of Ismaili Shi'a Muslims. They assassinated two Caliphs, as well as many viziers, Sultans, and Crusade leaders over 300 years, before being annihilated by Mongol invaders. were known for targeting the powerful, using the dagger as a weapon (rather than something safer for the assassin such as a crossbow), and for not attempting to escape after completing their killing.
Acehnese martyrs
(1873–1904)
Muslim Acehnese from the Aceh Sultanate performed suicide attacks known as parang-sabil against Dutch invaders during the Aceh War (1873–1904). It was considered part of personal in Islam. The Dutch called it , ( Aceh murder). The Acehnese work of literature the Hikayat Perang Sabil provided the background and reasoning for the as Acehnese suicide attacks upon the Dutch. The Indonesian translations of the Dutch terms are , , , or .
Aceh in WWII
was also used against the Japanese by the Acehnese during the Japanese occupation of Aceh. The Acehnese (Islamic Scholars) fought against both the Dutch and the Japanese, revolting against the Dutch in February 1942 and against Japan in November 1942. The revolt was led by the All-Aceh Religious Scholars' Association (PUSA). The Japanese suffered 18 dead in the uprising while they slaughtered either up to 100 or over 120 Acehnese.Ricklefs 2001, p. 252.Martinkus 2004, p. 47. The revolt happened in Bayu and was centred around Tjot Plieng village's religious school."Tempo: Indonesia's Weekly News Magazine, Volume 3, Issues 43–52" 2003, p. 27. During the revolt, the Japanese troops armed with mortars and machine guns were charged by sword wielding Acehnese under (Tengku Abdul Djalil) in Buloh Gampong Teungah on 10 November and Tjot Plieng on 13 November."Berita Kadjian Sumatera: Sumatra Research Bulletin, Volumes 1–4" 1971, p. 35.Nasution 1963, p. 89. In May 1945 the Acehnese rebelled again.Jong 2000, p. 189.
Moro juramentado
Juramentado, in Philippine history, refers to a male Moro swordsman (from the Tausug tribe of Sulu) who attacked and killed targeted occupying and invading police and soldiers. Death was expected, and considered martyrdom, undertaken as a form of jihad.
Moro people who performed suicide attacks were called , and the suicide attacks were known as . The Spanish called them . The idea of the was considered part of in the Moros' Islamic religion. During an attack, a would throw himself at his targets and kill them with bladed weapons such as barongs and kris until he was killed. The Moros performed suicide attacks against the Spanish in the Spanish–Moro conflict of the 16th to the 19th centuries, against the Americans in the Moro Rebellion from 1899 to 1913), and against the Japanese in World War II.
The Moro () launched suicide attacks on the Japanese, Spanish, Americans and Filipinos, but did not attack the non-Muslim Chinese as the Chinese were not considered enemies of the Moro people. The Japanese responded to these suicide attacks by massacring all known family members and relatives of the attackers.
According to historian Stephan Dale, the Moro were not the only culture who carried out suicide attacks "in their fight against Western hegemony and colonial rule". In the 18th century, suicide tactics were used on the Malabar Coast of southwestern India, and in Aceh in Northern Sumatra as well.
Auschwitz Revolt (1944) The Auschwitz Sonderkommando revolt on 7 October 1944 is widely described as a suicide mission. Most of the rebel prisoners were killed by the SS guards during or soon after the uprising. Rebels armed with work tools and shivs attacked SS guards who were armed with pistols and machine guns. Some of the Sonderkommando prisoners took the already suicidal mission a step further. They set fire to Crematorium IV while they were inside the building, and stayed inside to prevent the guards putting out the fire until the building was destroyed. The fire possibly also ignited explosives they had placed in the walls. The Polish resistance outside the camp tried to postpone the uprising until the Red Army were close enough to assist, originally it was planned to coordinate with Operation Bagration, but was delayed. Some worried that people who did not participate would face collective punishment for the revolt. The Sonderkommando prisoners, who had been forced to work in the crematorium, were unwilling to wait; they worried they would be killed before the Red Army arrived. The Red Army eventually did liberate the concentration camp, several months later, in 1945. – Source cited in this source:
— Available online:
— From: "The Sonderkommando Uprising in Auschwitz-Birkenau", (full citation elsewhere on the page)
Preventing capture
Other than as a way to cause enemy casualties, another situation in which some militaries and related bodies (such as intelligence agencies) encourage their own members to commit suicide is to avoid being captured by the enemy. The concept also often includes the use of intentional friendly fire. Either to avoid disclose of military secrets, avoid the need for a prisoner exchange, or for more intangible ideological motives. Individuals are encouraged by a perception that capture is a fate worse than death, and the likelihood of torture is strongly emphasised in internal propaganda. Sometimes, to the point that even civilians embrace the concept of dying (or killing people on their own side) to avoid capture.
The militaries of nation states often avoid equipping their troops with any means specifically designed to facilitate suicide, but sometimes imply that soldiers are obliged to resort to extreme measures to avoid capture including taking their own lives, or killing their comrades, with whatever means are available. Hand grenades have been repeatedly used or suggested. There are religious debates about whether this is acceptable.
In 1952, three Chinese soldiers reportedly killed themselves with hand grenades to avoid capture.
Sicarii in the First Jewish–Roman War
The Sicarii Jewish sect are sometimes described as carrying out "suicidal" attacks against their enemies. Riaz Hassan said that the first-century AD Jewish Sicarii sect carried out "suicidal missions to kill" Hellenized Jews they considered immoral collaborators. Citing (Rapoport 1984: 670) However, they are more known for having committed mass suicide, and family murders, to avoid capture during the Siege of Masada. The story of Masada is prominent in Israeli culture.
Jauhar (alleged Hindu mass suicides)
Jauhar, sometimes spelled Jowhar or Juhar, was a Rajput kshatriya women practice of mass self-immolation by women and girlsEaton, R.M., (2019), India in the Persiante Age 1000–1765, p. 219. Great Britain: Allen Lane in the Indian subcontinent to avoid capture, sex slavery, enslavement, and rape when facing certain defeat during a war.Arvind Sharma (1988), Sati: Historical and Phenomenological Essays, Motilal Banarsidass Publ, , pp. xi, 86 Some reports of jauhar mention women committing self-immolation along with their children. This practice was historically observed in the northwest regions of India, with the most famous jauhars in recorded history occurring during wars between Hindu Rajput kingdoms in Rajasthan and the opposing Muslim armies.Pratibha Jain, Saṅgītā Śarmā, Honour, status & polityMandakranta Bose (2014), Faces of the Feminine in Ancient, Medieval, and Modern India, Oxford University Press, , p. 26Malise Ruthven (2007), Fundamentalism: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, , p. 63;John Stratton Hawley (1994), Sati, the Blessing and the Curse, Oxford University Press, , pp. 165–166 Jauhar was only performed during war, usually when there was no chance of victory. Jauhar involved Hindu Rajput women committing suicide with their children and valuables in a massive fire, in order to avoid capture and abuse in the face of inescapable military defeat. At the same time or shortly thereafter, the men would ritualistically march to the battlefield expecting certain death, which in the regional tradition is called saka.