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Can’t comment on the refugee-column story, but the parachute-ace story sort of makes a certain grisly sense.

Recall the Hell In The Sky that was the air war over Europe - on an especially bad day (Second Schweinfurt, for example) we could lose a quarter of the attacking force on a single mission to fighters and anti-aircraft fire. Every mission was an absolute battle-to-the-death, with no foxholes.

Given those circumstances, an American fighter pilot had to be well aware that the German fighter pilot he allows to descend unmolested in his parachute today may very well kill him, or an entire bomber crew, tomorrow. And the next day. And the day after that... The Reich was an enemy that had to be not just defeated, but absolutely destroyed.

Curiously, my first flight instructor had been an ME-110 pilot during The War. Shot down four Lancasters and three other aircraft whose type escapes me.

Interesting story, but I am not sure why you posted it. Are you saying it was weakness to show mercy? Or to point out to people that the killing of defenseless people occurred on both sides in order to draw some kind of moral equivalence?

This story posted by lowbridge is not about US destroyers machine-gunning japanese sailors whose ships were sunk off of Guadalcanal, nor about soldiers whose prisoners he was tasked with guarding never made it to a drop-off point

The story was posted to show that even in the most brutal conflict in the history of man, the mask of necessary brutality occasionally came off to show the human face behind.

If someone can find it in themselves, under those conditions, to do that, then I admire them for it. I don’t know if I could do it in their position. I would like to think I could. Furthermore, most people who pay attention to this subject realize that, unless they have served in combat, it is best to leave judgements about what happens in combat to those who have, and even then.

This post isn’t meant as an attack on you, but I didn’t see why you posted what you did,

When I first went into Uncle Surgars Wind Force my first Wing Commander , then a Colonel at Kincheloe AFB , told of his days as an enlisted man in WWII as a Waist Gunner in a B17. said he and other gunners put more holes in other B17’s than German Pilots did..... flying in tight formations , trying to lead and shoot down enemy fighters etc ... said it was tough and did happen more often than not.

I took a short ride in a B17 about 12 years ago ...it has since crashed and allegedly it’s up and running again.

http://www.libertyfoundation.org/index.html

During that short ride around the Texas Panhandle I tried to imagine the cold those crews experienced just to and from. Add to the basic lack of comfort for long hours of flight the fight for survival against fast and deadly enemy fighters.....

Deepest respects for those crews that pounded the hell out of the enemy 24/7 for all those years.

Deepest Respects....

Stay safe Travis !