OT: even the worst enemies can become friends
 

So I was looking at Adolf Gallands wikipage and read the following:

"On 10 September 1963, Galland married his secretary, Hannelies Ladwein. They had two children: a son, Andreas Hubertus (nicknamed "Andus") born 7 November 1966; and a daughter, Alexandra-Isabelle born 29 July 1969. The RAF ace Robert Stanford Tuck was the godfather of his son Andreas."

Didn't know about this and it was actually really heart-warming to read.

I think the war in the air is more comparable with sports, your opponent is of course the enemy, but you're not supposed to hate him to the bone, victory in sports is winning, winning in the air usually means death to the opponent, but that was commonly accepted among pilots, it was war after all. At the least you could say that there was more respect in the air than on the ground.

More respect/detachment was an inevitability, since there would always be a minimum distance between the opponents.

There are countless stories like this, saburo sakai shook hands with the gunner that blinded him and caused temporary paralysis.

I have forgotten some of the others but there are a surprising number of encounters like these.

Yes the war in the air is very different of the land war, it's not the same thing :)

Time heals all wounds. Like mentioned as if it was a sport. And i think for the land and sea war its about the same. I remember seeing that documentary where Vets who landed in Normandy met with German Vets who manned the machine guns. It was very much like a reunion, sharing memory's.

and for those on the recieving end of the bombs also....my gran never forgave them and I completely understand why.

Bombing civillian targets is a bad thing. Bombing military targets is normal war. Fighters versus fighters is a dangerous sport.

Oh that is no nothing new, as I come from a family where my grandfathers where on opposing sides:
Here are my two grandfathers:
http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m...artin/Opa1.jpghttp://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m...234_edited.jpg

Both where in the army.

My grandfather was arrested for working against the German occupation force in Norway, and only the wars end saved him from being sent to a concentration camp. He was always adamant that we needed to put the war behind us live as friends.

Hate has it's use, but great men and women will see the time for hate is over. People like Tuck and Galland probably had more in common than each with most of his countrymen, despite flying for opposite sides. I believe they became friends during the filming of the 1969 Battle of Britain.