You’re thousands of feet over Germany, and the B-17 you are flying in has just been hit. She’s going down fast! As you scramble towards one of the tight emergency exits you pray that whoever packed your parachute knew their business. You jump from your doomed aircraft and as you somersault through the air, you grab for the rip chord. A sharp tug and your fall is instantly checked. A quick lookup, yes, a fully deployed parachute.
Suddenly, through the rushing wind and distant sound of flak, you hear the whine of an engine. Flying straight towards you is a German fighter. The last thing you ever see is the flashes along his nose and wings.
This is the story of how one American P-51 Pilot put a swift and definite end to the mass murder of fellow Americans fighting to save their lives.
Peterson story
Richard Peterson also known as Pete was born in Minnesota and joined the US Army air force in 1942. Once he completed his training, he was shipped to Europe to fight against Hitler’s war machine in the 357th fighter group.
This would be one of the legendary American units of the war. It was home to some of the top American ACEs, including Chuck Yeager in his machine named Glamorous Glennis and another “bud”, Clarence Anderson, flying the infamous Old Crow.
Like other members of his unit, Peterson would adorn his own Mustang with a moniker that, he hoped, would bring him luck and success in the battles ahead. Painted across his engine cowling were three simple words. “Hurry Home, Honey’.
This message was inspired by his own wife, who would always sign off her heartfelt letters with this tearful request. Peterson would grant his wife’s request, but not until the job was done.
Hurry home, honey. would see a great amount of success during his time with the 357th. Peterson eventually became a triple ACE by the time the war ended in 1945, with a total of 15.5 kills and another 3.5 aircraft destroyed on the ground. This put him firmly in the top 100 American Aces of the war.
His success was more than likely due to the impressive company he kept on the ground and in the air. Allied fighters, and in particular the long range bomber escorts, helped push German forces back on all fronts.
By 1944, Germany was almost on her knees and getting desperate. Like a caged animal, she was becoming increasingly dangerous and unpredictable, as Perterson would find out on one of the more memorable sorties he had.
Flying on one of the many bomber escort missions assigned to the 357th, Peterson observed something which would make his blood boil, even at 30,000 feet over Germany.
The Americans had increased their efforts to bomb targets all over Europe from 1943, but the attrition on bomber crews was horrendous. As technology and tactics improved, bombers were able to escorted right to their targets and back by a system of fighter cover.
Nonetheless, German fighters and flak still took their toll on the bomber formations, and those who survived faced years in captivity as POWs. At least, that is what should have happened.
After years in combat, many Luftwaffe pilots had become numbed by the brutality of the air battle, and were willing to destroy their enemies in any way necessary.
Assigned to escort a formation of B-17s, Major Richard Peterson’s group was engaged with a pack of Messerschmitt 109s when he saw the unthinkable.
In a sky which was littered with blazing bombers dropping from the sky due to heavy flak, parachutes were opening as men tried to save themselves.
And, uh, here I came across this one. And the sky was full of bomber, chutes, flak had gotten them and it was target area. And this $@*@ was going from parachute to parachute shooting up guys in parachutes. Oh, I got just, I mean, this was too much as far as I was concerned.
Quickly diving on the German aircraft, Peterson maneuvered to stop the illegal act of war he had just witnessed.
and I didn’t want them, I didn’t want to blow them up.
I wanted him to. So I was pecking away at just hitting, and I get strikes on it and he knew I was there and he knew I was getting strikes.
Peterson was taking great care not to kill this German pilot in his aircraft and using all of his skill to cripple the aircraft instead
He finally pulled the camp. I said, you met your maker Buster.
As the German pilot ripped back his canopy, he must have known what was coming, yet out of natural self-preservation, he pulled his parachute’s ripcord.
And I fired, I damn near empty my guns on this guy. He was mincemeat by the time I got through with them. And he was an issue. And of course, other guys who weren’t. We’re nervous about me shooting a guy. Shoot!They had to be there to know what I was seeing. My, this guy going. This guys are helpless of a bomber crews going down and I just, uh, I just tore him up with 800 rounds of minutes.
You can do a lot of damage with 50 caliber shells from six guns. So that was the end of that.
In a time where death was commonplace and each man had to decide for himself what action he took, Peterson had decided to deal out immediate and decisive judgment on this particular German pilot.
Was he justified in doing so, What do you think? Leave your comment below. And if you are enjoying the video so far, please give it a like to help spread the story to others.
The question remains, was this really an isolated incident or did many more airmen lose their lives even after successfully bailing out of their aircraft?
Well, according to the Germans, many more American pilots preyed upon them as they attempted to reach the ground in safety.
One such story involves Hans Thran a 109 pilot who was shot down over Normandy. Having successfully taken to his parachute, he was seen to be attacked and killed while still 60 feet in the air. The offender was a P-47 from the 368th FG.
One German commander advised his pilots: If you ever have to bail out, remember that the Americans are known to shoot us in our parachutes. Therefore, free-fall to about 200 meters; only that way can you be sure of survival. I have seen one of my best friends torn to bits by enemy cannon fire while still hanging in his chute.
In my research, I’ve found at least another 24 reported cases of Germans being killed in parachutes by American pilots during 1944 and 1945. It seems that it was a common enough practice among allied pilots that the issue was addressed by the highest authorities.
In his preparation for Operation Overlord, U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe, felt compelled to specifically forbid the practice. In the directive issued to the U.S. and British commanders of their respective strategic air forces on 2 June 1944, he said “I would add that similar considerations apply to enemy airmen compelled to escape by parachute. Such personnel are not legitimate military targets, and may not be deliberately attacked.”
Obviously some pilots chose not to heed this order.
Nevertheless, the practice of shooting pilots hanging in their parachutes was not limited to the battles between American and German airmen. On the Eastern Front, the threat was just as real. In fact, there is a famous story of a Russian bomber pilot called Ivan Mikhailovich Chisov who fell from 23,000 feet without deploying his parachute, and survived. Why did he fall from such a vast height and not use his parachute? Apparently he put off pulling the ripcord the instant he left his IL-4 bomber as he feared being shot up while hanging defenseless in his chute. In his case, the effects of the fall overcame him before he managed to open his parachute.
In Poland in 1939 there were also reports of similar incidents involving parachuting Poles during the brief air battles there, something that some Polish pilots repeated during the Battle of Britain in revenge. It was explained by one Polish officer that the more effective method of dealing with a downed German was to fly over his parachute and allow your slipstream to crumple his parachute, leaving him to drop like a stone.
Such practices were not limited to the Western Theatre of operation. During a combat over Rangoon, Burman. P-40 pilot Paul J. Greene, flying with the American Volunteer Group was badly damaged which forced him to bail out in his parachute. He was shot at by Japanese fighters while descending but managed to survive. When back at his base he was interviewed by the Daily Express war correspondent O.D. Gallagher was reported as saying “You want to see my ‘chute, It’s got more holes in it than the nose of a watering can.”
So, as a pilot of any nation during the Second World War, how did you choose whether or not to target an enemy hanging in his parachute?
The issue wasn’t only hotly debated in the Mess by eager young fighter pilots.
On 31 August 1940, Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding, head of Fighter Command at the time, was dining with Winston Churchill. The morality of shooting parachuting Luftwaffe pilots came up in conversation. Dowding suggested that German pilots were perfectly entitled to shoot RAF pilots parachuting over Britain as they were still potential combatants, being able to rejoin the fight if they survived. On the other hand, he suggested that RAF pilots should refrain from firing at German pilots as they were out of combat and would eventually become prisoners of war once they landed on British soil. Churchill was appalled by this suggestion, arguing that shooting a parachuting pilot “was like drowning a sailor”.
In a similar conversation, Hermann Göring pressed Luftwaffe fighter ace Adolf Galland for his opinion on targeting enemy pilots while in their parachutes, even over German territory.
Galland replied that, “I should regard it as murder, Herr Reichsmarschall. I should do everything in my power to disobey such an order.”
Göring, a former fighter ace during World War I said, “That is just the reply I had expected from you, Galland.”
So, what do you think? Is there any legitimate reason to shoot a downed enemy in his parachute? Leave your comments below and feel free to like this video to help spread it to others. Also, if you want to learn more about parachutes in aviation, check out this video I made about their lack of use by the RFC in WW1.
would retire from the military soon after returning to the states in 1940.
He would be awarded the silver star and three distinguished flying crosses. He would go on to be a well-respected architect and would pass away in the year 2000 at the age of 77.
