Collimatrix Posted November 19, 2014 Report Share Posted November 19, 2014 Fragile enough that you could kill one with a handgun, evidently. Great new blog I found, lots of amusing stories. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walter_Sobchak Posted November 19, 2014 Report Share Posted November 19, 2014 Interesting story. One question that popped into my head while reading it. The article goes out of it's way to criticize Japanese pilots for gunning down enemy airmen floating down to Earth in parachutes. What was allied policy in this situation? Did our guys shoot up parachutes as well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Collimatrix Posted November 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2014 I'm not sure; Wikipedia has this to say: 30. Persons Descending by Parachute The law of war does not prohibit firing upon paratroops or other persons who are or appear to be bound upon hostile missions while such persons are descending by parachute. Persons other than those mentioned in the preceding sentence who are descending by parachute from disabled aircraft may not be fired upon.[4] In 1977, this practice was finally codified in Protocol I in addition to the 1949 Geneva Conventions: Article 42 - Occupants of aircraft 1. No person parachuting from an aircraft in distress shall be made the object of attack during his descent. 2. Upon reaching the ground in territory controlled by an adverse Party, a person who has parachuted from an aircraft in distress shall be given an opportunity to surrender before being made the object of attack, unless it is apparent that he is engaging in a hostile act. 3. Airborne troops are not protected by this Article. I have somewhere an Eastern Front Luftwaffe memoir that mentions in passing that they never saw or heard of such practice on either side. The summary view of it seems to be that everyone frowned on it except the Japanese. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperComrade Posted November 20, 2014 Report Share Posted November 20, 2014 There is a story in one of my WW2 plane books where the pilot of a C-47 in the Pacific stuck a BAR or Thompson out of his window and shot down a Zero, or something to that effect Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donward Posted November 20, 2014 Report Share Posted November 20, 2014 The reason we got the Akutan Zero is because that idiot Petty Officer Koga was too busy strafing the crew of a downed Catalina flying boat. Stupid son of a bitch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Collimatrix Posted November 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2014 And Douglas MacArthur turned this bunch of prisoner's-liver-eating, Chinese-peasant-murder-raping savages into a polite, first world economy how?! Man should be a candidate for sainthood. Sturgeon 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toxn Posted November 21, 2014 Report Share Posted November 21, 2014 They were well on the way to being a first-world economy already. MacArthur and occupation just gave them resources and time to reintegrate and (carefully) forget. Same for Western Germany. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donward Posted November 21, 2014 Report Share Posted November 21, 2014 Genetically speaking, a lot of those liver eating, Chinese raping sorts didn't live long enough to pass their genes down. Well, except to maybe any Chinese that survived the raping. And then you add in a steady dose of GI and sailor Freedom Baby Makers. I'm more of a nurture vs nature guy though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.