Shooting pilots in their parachutes

[Brian Bines]

As Nick states the shooting of airmen on parachutes has been covered before. A few years ago there was a TV documentry on the 8th Air Force and a USAAF ace was asked about being ordered to shoot up parachuting enemy pilots. He said there was no instruction in his Group, but they were ofton told a baled out Luftwaffe pilot could climb into another fighter the next day and shoot down a bomber with its ten man crew. From what I read I had the impression that a Luftwaffe pilot jumping from a Me262 would ofton get shot at. However looking through what I have I found of around 60 combat baleouts 10 pilots were killed due to parachute failure/jumping too low, of those shot at while in their chutes 5 were killed 1 wounded and 3 were safe plus one guy shot at on the ground was unwounded. Unfortunately I have no figures for the desert war although a couple of books on air combat over Malta indicates that it could get quite ruthless.