A touching story by Walter Krupinski in an interview with the Author. Yes there was Chivalry. Sad but true.
We had just lost Rall, and we did not even believe he would come back, and Steinhoff (Macky) took over some of his duties. In fact, I was with Macky on this mission when he shot down three planes in less then one minute.
Absolutely incredible, as I was about two hundred meters behind him, covering his tail, and I had yet to score any kills on the mission. Macky chased two Yaks and fired into one, and that fighter simply disintegrated, and the
other broke right, but Macky made a deflection shot that nailed him solid, and he also went down. 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 the 109 head-on into the Yak as he pulled up. I saw both the Yak and 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 alongside the left wing of the Yak, Macky's third kill, and being only 40 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 were starting to erupt from the cowling. The front of the Yak had been shredded by Macky's cannon fire. The Yaks canopy must have been jammed shut from the 109's guns as I could see shell strikes all
over the bevel, where the canopy frame meets the fuselage. The plane started burning more from the engine, the fuel line apparently feeding the flames. I saw the terror in the man's face and I was screaming into my oxygen mask
for him to get out, which was silly, so I made the hand gesture for him to get out.
Macky pulled alongside him on his right and saw as well what was happening. I heard Macky over my radio "Jesus Christ, Punski, I hope he can get out, I hope he can get out," and I could feel Macky's emotions. The man in that plane
had no surface control, the elevators were gone, and the rudder was just hanging on. He could do nothing but ride out this flaming torch until it crashed, killing him, or he burned to death slowly, or the smoke killed him. He could not
bail out, and we were at high altitude, perhaps eight thousand feet or so, I think and I knew he would not survive a crash landing. Macky knew this also.
"Punski, go away, I will catch you," 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 about to happen, just relaxed, and gestured with a wave and nodded his head.
He knew what was going to happen, and this was simply his way of saying "thank you." The Yak exploded.
Do you have any factual accounts? Would be nice to read them here.
By the way I would suggest this book to everyone. A great read indeed.
