Air attacks on civilian aircraft

[northeagle]

Originally Posted by Maximowitz

There was the attack by V Gruppe/Kampfgeschwader 40, on flight 777 which killed the British film actor Leslie Howard in 1943, the myth being that it was ordered by Josef Goebbels owing to Howard's propaganda value to the Allied cause. I believe this has now been debunked.

Do we know which pilot of V./KG40 was responsible or was it a shared claim?

An article on this appeared in Flypast issue: July, 1991, p 11-14. Article by Ben Rovevink and Lt Col Herbert Hintze. Formation led by Lt Col Hintze and aircraft that carried out the attack were flown by Lt Bellstedt and Lt Wittermer Eigenbrodt.

Best Wishes.
Robert.

[Maximowitz]

Originally Posted by paul peters

On the 1st of July 1943 PH-ALI a DC-3 of KLM was shot down by Ju-88's over the Gulf of Biscay. The 17 passengers and crew of 4 were killed.
pp

Are you sure of that date? 1st of June would make it the KLM DC-3 Flight 777 I mentioned in a previous post. Unless KLM lost another DC-3 the following month.

[northeagle]

Originally Posted by Maximowitz

Are you sure of that date? 1st of June would make it the KLM DC-3 Flight 777 I mentioned in a previous post. Unless KLM lost another DC-3 the following month.

According to above Flypast article aircraft was KLM Flight 777, aircaft DC-3 Ibis G-AGBB shot down June 1st 1943.

Best Wishes.
Robert.

[Maximowitz]

Originally Posted by northeagle

According to above Flypast article aircraft was KLM Flight 777, aircaft DC-3 Ibis G-AGBB shot down June 1st 1943.

Best Wishes.
Robert.

I can't help thinking that if I was a KLM pilot at the time I might have took some sick leave.

Thanks for that Robert, most kind indeed.

[Chris Goss]

Full details of the 1 Jun 43 incident is in my book 'Bloody Biscay'.

[Maximowitz]

Cheers Chris, I'll pick up a copy next pay day.

[Boomerang]

Gentlemen:

I don't believe that the question put in the initial post has been completely resolved i.e. were there treaties, conventions, international laws, etc that, in WW 2, explicitly prohibited attacks on civilian aircraft?

I share Graham's view that there probably were, but it would be nice to have a primary source to confirm this.

This might be one for the lawyers who follow this Board (but perhap it doesn't pay well enough for their advice)

Cheers

Don W

[Brian]

Thanks Don

That was the point of asking the question.

Did the Geneva Convention cover this?

Cheers
Brian

[paul peters]

Mea culpa!
First of June indeed.
pp

[Amrit1]

I think the same conventions that affected civilian ships also affected civilian aircraft, and the same attitude by the bellligerents i.e. ships/aircraft, even though civilian in that they do not carry defensive or offensive weapons, are assumed to be part of the war effort of said country and so fair game for attack. The only exceptions being craft from neutral countries amd they should be explicially marked as such.

There appear to be no explicit treaties/concentions of war that mention civilian aircraft but I have read that aircraft were treated in the same way as ships when retrospectively judging legality of action.

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/lawwar.asp