I think the sides tend to get more hard nosed the longer they are in combat.
I read a story by an American Infantry Officer, that occurred during the early days of the Italian Campaign (1943). His unit and a German unit ran into each other, had a vicious fire fight, and both sides retreated, leaving their wounded behind. The German CO sent out a messenger under a white flag, and offered a brief truce, so that the wounded could be recovered. The American CO agreed, and for an hour or two the German and American medics worked together in no man's land, between the opposing units, to find and stabilize the wounded from both sides, and see to it that they were evacuated to their own lines. The American Officer said that guys whose first experience of the was the vicious fighting in the Winter of 44-45, or later, refused to believe that such a thing had happened.
Yeah, and both viewpoints would have been right about their location and time. Very different wars from year to year and theater to theater.