Allied pilot shot on the ground by Luftwaffe pilot after being shot down in aerial combat

[sidney]

I feel that this issue was regulated by the Geneva Conventions, which are a series of treaties on the treatment of civilians, prisoners of war (POWs) and soldiers who are otherwise rendered hors de combat, or incapable of fighting... the category where pilots hanging helplessly in their parachutes certainly qualify.

The paratroopers might face different issues altogether for the reason they are capable of fighting when parachuted, and especially so once they touch the ground.

[Broncazonk]

Shooting at airmen parachuting from stricken aircraft is prohibited under the Geneva Conventions (Protocol 1, Article 42) and the 1923 Hague Rules of Air Warfare (article 20).

Bronc

[odybvig]

Originally Posted by Broncazonk

Shooting at airmen parachuting from stricken aircraft is prohibited under the Geneva Conventions (Protocol 1, Article 42) and the 1923 Hague Rules of Air Warfare (article 20).

Bronc

Interesting link, Thank you for that. It seems that I was wrong about shooting on airmen in a parachute. But i says nothing about shooting a grounded airmen.

It also gives a lot of rules that was not followed by both parties during WW2. Especially bombing sivil areas

The Geneva Conventions is from 1949 and does not inflict WW2

Best from Norway
Olve Dybvig

[sidney]

Originally Posted by odybvig

The Geneva Conventions is from 1949 and does not inflict WW2

That... is not exactly the case. The Geneva Conventions comprise four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish the standards of international law for the humanitarian treatment of war. The singular term Geneva Convention usually denotes the agreements of 1949, negotiated in the aftermath of the Second World War (1939–45), which updated the terms of the first three treaties (1864, 1906, 1929), and added a fourth. The Geneva Conventions extensively defined the basic rights of wartime prisoners (civilians and military personnel); established protections for the wounded; and established protections for the civilians in and around a war-zone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Conventions

Thus, one might refer to Geneva Treaties for the WW2 period, but the fact remains that the shot-down airmen were incapable or out of combat, and strafing them was a war crime, no matter which side committed the act.

[Richard Aigner]

How about strafing civilians? In Spring 1945 my mother was 13 and lived on a farm right next to Zeltweg airfield. One day in April she had to carry lunch to the hands working in the fields. Carrying a basket in one hand, holding a much younger child on the other hand, she set off. A while later, a plane flew up and started to machine-gun her. She dropped the basket and ran home, still holding the child by the hand. The pilot executed 3 passes, possibly misidentifying the 2 kids for a Tiger tank, for his aim was off: neither of them was hit. The bullet-stirke melody on the 3rd pass, when she was safely in the arms of the farmers wife, sheltering inside the farmhouse, is still with her: bullets striking the ground, the flagstone-walls, and the rooftiles.
No, she did not identify type or nationality. That experience gave her a healthy respect for airplanes; in consequence she did not walk out for a good look of Batz's 109K when II/JG52 staged through Zeltweg on the way to surrender at Neubiberg: THAT would have been something to tell her son 70 years later!
Greetings from Austria, Richard
P.S.: Allow me to state unequivocally that I will be forever grateful to each and every Allied soldier for ridding the world of Nationalsocialism, including the pilot who strafed my mother.