Guys, this wasn't compassion. The 109 pilot took a look at the B-17, and figured, "Those guys will never make it back to base. Why waste a bullet on them?" His opinion, was, naturally, based on what a similar amount of damage to a German aircraft would have caused.
After the war, when the Germans and Japanese got a chance to take a real look at American aircraft, they were all amazed at how much thought had been put into the concept of "survivability." The Japanese Zero, for example, was a one-hit, one-kill airplane. IF you could hit it. But if you did, it was going down. The Germans all had far superior cannon compared to the Browning 50-cals most US aircraft had. Better range, far more destructive. But if it jammed the pilot couldn't clear it. Our planes, with eight .50's, could toss tons of lead at the enemy, and the pilot could usually clear a jam in-flight, but they didn't usually jam. It was inferior to the German cannons, but hey, we had eight of them, per plane, and they were reliable. And we built our planes with armor plated seat back-rests and rubber-lined self-sealing fuel tanks.
Then why did the german pilot escort the B17 to help avoid AA fire...?Guys, this wasn't compassion. The 109 pilot took a look at the B-17, and figured, "Those guys will never make it back to base. Why waste a bullet on them?" His opinion, was, naturally, based on what a similar amount of damage to a German aircraft would have caused.
After the war, when the Germans and Japanese got a chance to take a real look at American aircraft, they were all amazed at how much thought had been put into the concept of "survivability." The Japanese Zero, for example, was a one-hit, one-kill airplane. IF you could hit it. But if you did, it was going down. The Germans all had far superior cannon compared to the Browning 50-cals most US aircraft had. Better range, far more destructive. But if it jammed the pilot couldn't clear it. Our planes, with eight .50's, could toss tons of lead at the enemy, and the pilot could usually clear a jam in-flight, but they didn't usually jam. It was inferior to the German cannons, but hey, we had eight of them, per plane, and they were reliable. And we built our planes with armor plated seat back-rests and rubber-lined self-sealing fuel tanks.
You obviously haven't taken even 4 seconds to learn anything about this particular story.Guys, this wasn't compassion. The 109 pilot took a look at the B-17, and figured, "Those guys will never make it back to base. Why waste a bullet on them?" His opinion, was, naturally, based on what a similar amount of damage to a German aircraft would have cause.