Surprising quality gun camera footage from japanese theatre.

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Originally Posted by WTE_Galway

twas a bit odd ...

all was fine until I pointed out the footage was US guncams shooting at the Japanese not the other way around and then suddenl7 people started deleting posts and links

must admit I was rather confused myself

Yeah, it's weird. The original footage did NOT show an Allied plane shooting someone in a parachute, for those who were wondering (it was a camera pass, no bullets).

While I still think it is wrong to shoot someone up in a chute IRL (except of course in a case like Bud Peterson talked about where it was simply battlefield justice), apparently Dowding agreed with Trigaaaar.

From another website:

"According to ACM H. Dowding in his despatch submitted
to the Secratary of State for Air on August 20, 1941:
Supplement to The London Gazette 11 September, 1946.
PDF page 1, Supplement page 4553
items 158 to 160.

158. This is perhaps a convenient opportunity
to say a word about the ethics of shooting
at aircraft crews who have "baled out"
in parachutes.

159. Germans descending over England are
prospective Prisoners of War, and as such
should be immune. On the other hand, British
pilots descending over England are still
potential Combatants.

160. Much indignation was caused by the
fact that German pilots sometimes fired on our
descending airmen (although, in my opinion,
they were perfectly entitled to do so), but
I am glad to say that in many cases they refrained
and sometimes greeted a helpless
adversary with a cheerful wave of the hand."

This surprises me.

Also, shooting at pilots who had bailed was not covered under the Geneva convention. So legally, it was ok. In the Pacific, it is important to note that the Japanese never signed on to the Geneva convention.

It is also important to not that an Allied airman in the Pacific had a decent (not great) chance of being rescued at sea. The Japanese did not have as good a record of recovering their own pilots.

Lastly, I think it is important to note that there are far more reports of acts of chivalry between airmen than there are verified accounts of "chute shooting". Exceptions to that seem to be German vs. Russian and Allies vs. Japanese. I think most of us would agree that there was a special brutality in those theaters of war for various reasons.

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