Originally posted by Shiva
I remember reading that there was an incident during the early BoB concerning that. Supposedly there was a LW 109 pilot who would go out of his way to shoot up the chutes of bailed RAF pilots, and his fellow pilots couldn't get him to stop. Some number of sorties later, he gets shot up and has to bail -- and his entire unit breaks off combat and orbits, giving the RAF pilots time to shoot him up in his chute before resuming combat.
This was, of course, early enough in the war that you could expect to see the WWI-era 'knights of the air' attitude on both sides.
This of course brings to mind a scene in
Life of BrianThe problem, out in the real world, with being chivalrous is the guy you let live today may well send your friends home in a mason jar tomorrow.
Until this thread popped up the CONCEPT of giving (or asking for) quarter in AH never occured to me. Now that I think about it, though, it does have its place in the arsenel of psyops. This is just a silly, addictive, time consuming, ulcer generating, expensive distraction. Live or die on your abilities, not on the grace of others.