We are used to the protagonists of war stories being heroes who sacrificed their lives, brilliant strategists, unscrupulous wretches... but in this story the protagonists were because of their chivalry. One of them, Colonel Hans von Luck , he even said «we made a ruthless but decent war «.
Hans von Luck he was colonel of a panzer regiment (Panzerwaffe ) during World War II. After fighting on the European front he was sent Afrika Korps where Rommel, with whom he established a close friendship, put him in command of the 3 Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion. After being discharged after being wounded in the battle of Galaza (Libya) he was tasked with protecting the southern flank of the Afrika Korps, facing the Long Range Desert Group p (LRDG), a British Army unit specializing in motorized reconnaissance.
Hans von Luck
The commander in charge of the LRDG must also be a gentleman and supporter of a civilized war. . They reached an agreement that from 5:00 p.m. hostilities would cease and they would exchange impressions, letters from the prisoners... There were some other problems with the schedule, such as that occasion in which the Germans captured a British supply truck after the agreed time and Hans von Luck prepared a plan for the British to capture his own truck.
But the case at hand took the cake. The Germans learned that their enemies had received supplies of cigarettes to cover the needs of the entire regiment for more than a month. Tobacco being a luxury item in these parts, the Germans offered to exchange a captured British officer for a million cigarettes. The British weighed the offer and decided that a million was too much and that their counteroffer was 600,000 cigarettes.
When the British officer found out he almost scuttled the business because he considered that the offer of his countrymen was insufficient, just like Julius Caesar when he was captured by pirates and was offended because he had only asked for 20 talents as ransom. The fact is that, in the end, the exchange was made.
And most curious of all, the British officer was the heir to John Player &Sons, a cigarette manufacturer from Nottingham (United Kingdom)
Sources:WWIIinColor, elpais, The Victors – Stephen E. Ambrose