Air attacks on civilian aircraft

[Stig Jarlevik]

Guys

The way I see it, civil aircraft from Nations partaking in the war were all valid targets. During the war years, civil aircraft didn't fly tourists or pleasure flights. Basically all were on important schedules and used by either politicians,diplomats, business men (although often relatives were onboard as well), spies and other "under ground" individuals. Many of those onboard contributed quite a lot to each Nations war effort. Very often to "nail" a civil airliner probably caused more damage than to shoot down a bomber or fighter aircraft.

It became far more difficult when it came to civil aircraft from the Neutral States, such as Sweden, Switzerland and Portugal. The Germans when going over on the defensive were very much aware of what went on when let's say Swedish airliners went to Britain, but it was awkward of course to shoot such aircraft down since the same airline (in the Swedish case) also routed into Berlin. Politically it was no secret that Sweden also tended to "communicate" more and more with the Allies the further the war dragged on and politically we got warnings from Germany not to continue these "diplomat" flights. There are those who insist that the two DC-3's which were shot down were warnings to the Swedish Government, although Luftwaffe always claimed both were mistakes...

Cheers
Stig