in ww2 they did anything possible to get a kill, from ganging to hoing, to you name it. I find it funny that people think you can fight with "honor" in a cartoon plane.
if there was such thing as "honor" in this game then we wouldnt shoot down c47's as they are unarmed. after all they cannot defend themselves and what is the "honor" in that?
semp
So there was no honour in WW2 air combat? I'm certain we have all seen the threads relating to the "Higher Calling" story, also I recently read Walter Krupinski's memoirs in which he recalled a fight with a group of Yaks:
"then out of nowhere another Yak flew past me, at great speed, and was going to get Steinhoff, who was still turning hard right, reversing course, which brought his 109 head on into the Yak as he pulled up. I saw both the Yak and the 109 fire, but the Yak took the worst of it, shuddered, stalled, and Macky flew past and above the Yak, they were so close that I thought they would collide."
"My fighter just happened to pull along the left side of the Yak, Macky's third kill, and being only forty or so feet away, very close, I could clearly see the pilot. He was beating against the canopy, trying to open it as smoke began filling the cockpit, and flames began to erupt from the cowling. The front of the Yak had been shredded by Mack's 20mm cannon fire. The Yaks canopy must have been jammed shut from the 109's guns, I could see the shell strikes all over the bevel where the canopy joined the fuselage. The plane started burning even more from the engine, the fuel lines apparently feeding the flames. I swathe terror on the mans face and I was even screaming into my oxygen mask for him to get out, which was silly because there could be no way for him to hear me, so I made hand gestures for him to get out".
"Macky pulled alongside him on his right and saw as well what was happening. I heard Macky over the radio, "Jesus Christ, Punski, I hope he can get out", and I could feel the emotion in his voice. The man in that plane had no surface controls, the elevators were gone and the rudder was hanging off. He could do nothing but ride out his flaming torch until it crashed, killing him, or he burned to death slowly, or the smoke killed him. He could not get out and we were at high altitude, perhaps 8000ft or so, I think, and I knew he would not survive the crash landing. Macky knew this also.
"Punski, go away, I will catch you up" he told me. I knew what he was going to do. It was a clear violation of our ethics to kill a disabled opponent, one who was fairly beaten. But this was not murder. Macky was performing a mercy killing, that pilot was going to burn to death slowly. Before I pulled away I saw him slip in behind the Yak. Then the Soviet pilot, who must have known what was going to happen, just relaxed, and gestured with a little wave and nodded his head.
