What a crazy story it is, one extraordinary event after another.
They whip out their pistols to shoot at an enemy plane, well fine, who wouldn’t, it feels good, and what a great story to tell the guys.
But they hit it and shoot it down, WOW!. Then the plane survives being shot down and lands intact, with crew alive, wow!, Then the good guys land and capture the crew of the German plane they just shot down with pistols, wow!
If it were a movie, we would saying the writers took it too far, and made it unbelievable.
Closest I ever got was during Gulf War I.
I was in the left seat of an Army OH-58 (I was a USAF FAC) and we were flying about 4’ over the ground when we flew over an Iraqi position. Surprised us (and them)!
All I could do was whip out my 9mm and start firing out the door (I'm left-handed so that helped). . .the shell casings pinged off the inside of the windscreen as we yanked around and got outta there. . . probably didn't hit anything but dang, it felt like I had to do SOMETHING!