Attacks on parachutists
Attacks on parachutists, as defined by the
International humanitarian law
After World War I, a series of meetings were held at The Hague in 1922–1923. Based on the testimony of First World War pilots, a commission of jurists attempted to codify this practice with the Hague Rules of Air Warfare, which, like most law of war treaties at the time, was applicable to interstate armed conflict. Article 20 prescribed that:
When an aircraft has been disabled, the occupants when endeavoring to escape by means of parachute must not be attacked in the course of their descent.[2]
The Hague Rules of Air Warfare never came into force. There was no legal prohibition of targeting parachuting enemy airmen before or during World War II.[3] In 1949, as a result of widespread practices and abuses committed during World War II, the newly modified and updated versions of the Geneva Conventions came into force providing greater protections to protected persons, but there was still no explicit prohibition on the shooting of parachuting enemy combatants outside of their airborne duties. However, despite this, military manuals around the world issued prohibitions on attacking enemy aircrew parachuting from aircraft in distress. Paragraph 30 of the United States Army's Field Manual published by the Department of the Army, on 18 July 1956 (last modified on 15 July 1976), under the title "The Law of Land Warfare", states:
30. Persons Descending by Parachute
The law of war does not prohibit firing upon paratroopers 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 outlawed in an interstate armed conflict by Additional Protocol I to the 1949 Geneva Conventions:[1]
Article 42 – Occupants of aircraft
- No person parachuting from an aircraft in distress shall be made the object of attack during his descent.
- 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.
- Airborne troops are not protected by this Article.
However, there is no international humanitarian law prohibiting such practice in a non-interstate conflict. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) alleges in its Rule 48 study that attacking parachutists is prohibited by Common Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, yet acknowledges in its 2020 commentary "it does not in itself provide rules governing the conduct of hostilities." The phrase "treated humanely" implies that a person hors de combat must be under physical control to receive protection under Common Article 3. Also, most of the military manuals cited in the Rule 48 study stems from the context of interstate armed conflict, therefore failing to satisfy the prohibition under customary international humanitarian law (which requires both state practice and opinio juris).[5][6]
First World War
Targeting parachutists became an issue during the First World War when
By July 1918,
Second World War
War in Europe
At the beginning of World War II, there was a strong sense of chivalry between the British
On the German side, Luftwaffe commander-in-chief
Despite such sentiments, there were a number of incidents where the shooting of parachuting enemy aviators occurred. On 1 September 1939, in the Modlin area, during the German invasion of Poland, pilots of the Polish Pursuit Brigade encountered a group of 40 German bombers escorted by 20 Bf 109 and Bf 110 fighters. During combat, Lt. Aleksander Gabszewicz was forced to bail out of his aircraft. While in his parachute, Gabszewicz was shot at by a Bf 110. Second Lt. Tadeusz Sawicz, flying nearby, attacked the German plane and another Polish pilot, Wladyslaw Kiedrzynski, spiraled around the defenseless Gabszewicz until he reached the ground. On 2 September, Sec. Lt. Jan Dzwonek, along with eight other Polish pilots, attacked a couple of German fighters approaching their direction. In the battle, Dzwonek's plane was shot down and he was forced to bail out. Hanging in his parachute, he was attacked twice by a Bf 110. Apparently, the Luftwaffe pilot was so busy attacking the defenseless Dzwonek that Corporal Jan Malinowski, flying an obsolete P.7 fighter, downed the German plane. Dzwonek later recounted the story:
I was hanging in the chute at about 2000 meters altitude when I noticed tracers passing near to me. They missed, but this pirate of the Third Reich did not give up and attacked me again. This second time the wave of bullets also spared me. Shells passed to the left and right of my body. The German didn't get a third chance to kill me because my friend Jan Malinowski from 162nd Escadrille (flew on P.7a!) successfully attacked the German. On the first attack he set the right engine of the Bf 110 on fire, and on the second pass killed the pilot. The aircraft fell, crashing in pieces. During my landing I damaged my backbone. I was transported to the hospital in Pabianice, where I heard someone say I had no chance to see next sunrise. I did go into a coma for 20 hours. When I awakened, the doctor told me, that in the same hospital was a Bf 110 pilot – the one I downed.[11]
During the Battle of Britain, Polish and Czech pilots serving in the RAF sometimes shot at Luftwaffe pilots parachuting over Britain. Many Germans charged that this was regular practice by the Poles and the Czechs, but there was little hard evidence of it. The leading historian of the Polish Air Force, Adam Zamoyski, conceded that "it is true that some pilots still finished off parachuting Germans by flying directly over them; the slipstream would cause the parachute to collapse and the man would fall into the ground like a stone."[12]
On 8 March 1944, Lt.
Still, both German and American pilots did shoot enemy airmen in their parachutes, albeit infrequently. Richard "Bud" Peterson, a P-51 pilot with the 357th Fighter Group, based in Leiston, agreed that "normally, nobody, including the Germans, would be shooting anybody in a parachute. It just wasn't done. I mean, there's no challenge with shooting a guy in a parachute, for God's sake." However, on one mission he saw a Bf 109 systematically firing at American B-17 bomber crews as they descended in their parachutes. After Peterson forced the offending German pilot to bail out, he killed him as he was descending. He recalled that some of his unit were nervous that this would invite a retaliatory response from the Luftwaffe. "But they had to be there to know what I was seeing," Peterson said. "Those guys were helpless, the bomber crews going down".[14][15]
Several German sources (examples below) claim that American pilots frequently practised shooting at parachutes, especially closer to the end of the war when Germany had more planes than pilots:
Gefr. Hans Thran bailed out successfully but, according to ground witnesses, was shot in his parachute by a P-47 pilot while only sixty feet above the ground. German pilots had a fear of being killed while hanging helpless in their parachutes, and every such report was investigated and carefully documented. These incidents were especially common during the summer and autumn of 1944.
Hofmann gave this advice to 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.[16]
Shooting jet pilots in their parachutes was justified by some as a necessary evil. It was believed that these pilots were a special elite and that training them to fly such aircraft was a protracted and expensive effort. This logic held that killing such men whenever possible could help shorten the war. For their part, many German pilots were so concerned about being attacked in their parachutes that they waited until they were at low altitude before pulling their ripcords.[17]
On 4 April, Sinner led seven other Me 262s off from Rechlin. Emerging from the clouds shortly after take-off, the flight was bounced by P-51 fighters of the 339th Fighter Group, USAAF. In the ensuing combat "Rudi" Sinner's aircraft was hit. With his face and hands badly burned, he bailed out at low level. His parachute deployed at the last moment, but did not completely fill, and he was hanging by just the left strap when he hit the ground heavily in a ploughed field and dragged into a barbed wire fence. He reported that the P-51s then strafed him, but he feigned death and, as the P-51s departed, made his way to the safety of a deep furrow.[18]
With a little course correction, he is in my crosshairs and I fire: the Mustang shows a white trail and makes a turn downwards. But at the same time, the pilot in the other Mustang has me in his crosshairs and fires. I notice that my bird has become uncontrollable, jettison the canopy, unbuckle and get out. To my horror. I notice that we are really, very low – will my chute open in time? I immediately pull my ripcord – the chute opens – I am just over some woods, see a Mustang flying towards me, it shoots at me.
I have arrived in the tops of some trees and finally hang suspended between the branches. I turn the buckle on my harness, leave my chute in the trees and climb down using some branches. Already the first people arrive at the scene. They have seen the dogfight and have also seen that the Mustang fired at me in my chute.[19]
Thaen Kwock Lee was a B-17 waist gunner with the 483rd Bomb Group, a
Three fighters came after me. The first one missed and the second also missed. When the third one came by I was too low for him to shoot at me. When I hit the ground a burst of machine gun was fired at me. I hit the dirt fast. Then German soldiers came and drove me on a motorcycle to a building. On the way we passed a row of dead American airmen, about twelve of them covered with blood soaked parachutes. I knew they were shot dead on the way down.[20]
USAAF pilot Stanley Miles shared his experience on 13 May 1944, when the 352nd encountered a massive formation of enemy fighters. After getting involved in a dogfight with one of the German planes for a while, Miles shot down the plane, which caused the German pilot to bail out in his parachute. "I had my gun camera running," he recalled, "so I got some good shots of the tracers hitting the plane and the pilot jumping out. My wing-man was still with me, so I eased around, came back and got some nice film footage of the German pilot in his chute." Miles considered shooting the enemy pilot as he drifted helplessly back to earth. It was a topic that he and his squadron units had considered in earnest. "One school of thought was that if you didn't shoot the guy, he'd land and be right back up fighting you the next day. I couldn't do it, however, and just took the film footage of him."
Most American pilots used
During current and future intensive air operations, Allied airmen are required by their duty to fly and fight continuously over enemy and occupied territories of Europe. The enemy who is fearful of these attacks because of their devastating effect of his transport and the morale of his troops, is endeavouring to prevent them by propaganda designed to prove to the peoples of Europe that Allied airmen are wilfully shooting up harmless civilians in the course of their fighter sweeps and tactical bombing attacks. It is essential to remember that much of the air fighting will take place over the heads of friendly people, who have endured the savagery of the Germans for years. Humanity and the principles for which we fight demand from our pilots scrupulous care to avoid any but military targets. The Air Forces of the United Nations are privileged to be the spearhead of the forces fighting for freedom and the herald to the oppressed peoples of Europe of our approach. Be careful that nothing is done to betray this trust or to prejudice our good name in the eyes of our friends still dominated by Nazi tyranny. I request that those instructions be brought to the attention of every member of aircrews fighting over Europe. 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.[22]
There were episodes of shooting parachuting aircrew in the Mediterranean theater: on 2 October 1942, Captain Livio Ceccotti of the
War in Asia and the Pacific
While World War II began in Asia with the start of the
On 23 December 1941, 12
On 23 January 1942, the AVG attacked Japanese bombers and fighters which had resumed carrying out bombing raids on Rangoon. The AVG shot down 21, suffering only a single loss of a pilot named
In June 1942, as part of the Japanese
During the
But two Japanese pilots, in a parting gesture of hate, dived towards the descending parachute and poured long bursts of gunfire at the Brewster pilot swinging helplessly in the canopy rigging. A concerted and immediate growl of rage rose from most of us, conveying our feelings that the Japanese pilots had just perpetrated an act amounting to unfair tactics, treachery, and an outrageous course of conduct. Previously, among British and German pilots, an unwritten code of honour – chivalry, if you like – assumed that pilots descending by parachute should not be shot at by opposing aircraft. The Japanese served notice that they held no such gentlemanly opinions.[30]
During the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, where Allied planes attacked a Japanese convoy of destroyers and troop transports, one Allied sortie on 3 March 1943 consisting of B-17 bombers escorted by P-38 fighters was intercepted by Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters. The A6M Zeros fatally crippled one of the B-17s, forcing its crew to bail out, then Japanese fighter pilots machine-gunned some of the crew as they descended and attacked others in the water after they landed. Five of the Japanese fighters strafing the B-17 aircrew were promptly engaged and shot down by three P-38s which were also lost. On the evenings of 3–5 March, PT boats and planes attacked Japanese rescue vessels, as well as the survivors from the sunken vessels on life rafts and swimming or floating in the sea. This was later justified on the grounds that rescued servicemen would have been rapidly landed at their military destination and promptly returned to active service, as well as being retaliation for the Japanese fighter planes attacking survivors of the downed B-17 bomber. While many of the Allied aircrew accepted these attacks as being necessary, others were sickened.[31]
On 31 March 1943, a squadron of USAAF B-24 bombers sent to destroy a bridge at Pyinmana, Burma, were attacked by Japanese Zero fighters. One B-24 aircraft was shot down and its occupants, including 2nd Lt Owen J. Baggett, bailed out. While the downed B-24 crew members were descending, they were machine gunned by Japanese fighters. Two of the crewmen were killed and Baggett was wounded in the arm. He then played dead in his harness, hoping the Japanese would leave him alone. One Japanese plane, however, circled and approached very close to Baggett to make sure he was dead.[32] Baggett raised his M1911 pistol and fired four shots into the cockpit, hitting the pilot;[33] the Zero stalled and crashed. Baggett became legendary as the only person to have downed a Japanese aircraft with a M1911 pistol.[34] The aircraft engaged were Ki 43 Hayabusa, a smaller aircraft that was often mistaken as the Zero due to its similar shape.
On 15 September 1943, seven B-24s of the
On 5 May 1945, an American Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber was flying with a dozen other aircraft after bombing Tachiarai Air Base in southwestern Japan, beginning the return flight to Guam. Kinzou Kasuya, a 19-year-old Japanese pilot flying one of the Japanese fighters in pursuit of the Americans, rammed his aircraft into the fuselage of the B-29, destroying both planes. No one knows for certain how many Americans were in the B-29 as its crew had been hastily assembled on Guam. Villagers in Japan who witnessed the collision in the air saw about a dozen parachutes blossom. One of the Americans died when the cords of his parachute were severed by another Japanese plane. A second was alive when he reached the ground. He shot all but his last bullet at the villagers coming toward him, then used the last on himself. The other nine B-29 airmen who were captured by the Japanese after landing were subjected to vivisection at the Kyushu Imperial University. Professor Ishiyama Fukujirō and other doctors conducted four such sessions throughout May and early-June.[40] The Western Military Command assisted in arranging these operations. Many of the Japanese personnel responsible for the deaths of Allied airmen were prosecuted in the Yokohama War Crimes Trials following World War II. Several of those found guilty were executed and the remainder were imprisoned.[41]
Cold War
1953 Avro Lincoln shootdown incident
German civilians on the ground reported that two British airmen bailed out from the doomed aircraft, only to be strafed and killed by one of the Soviet MiG 15s in the 1953 Avro Lincoln shootdown incident.
Vietnam War
From the start of the Vietnam War, there were many reports of South Vietnamese and American pilots being shot at in their parachutes. Most notably, such events occurred during the peak of Operation Rolling Thunder, where many pilots recalled being shot at with small arms fire, presumably from Type 56 assault rifles.[42] Pilots who made it through the small arms fire were often captured and sent to POW camps, where they faced extreme punishment and torture. Other pilots were also forced to march down the Ho Chi Minh Trail as a form of torture and punishment.[42]
During pitched aerial battles between fighter pilots of the
VPAF MiG-21 ace fighter pilot Le Thanh Dao would fly his final mission against U.S. aircraft on 15 October, 1972 when he was shot down by USAF F-4E Phantoms, and while safely ejecting from his stricken MiG, at least one Phantom fired cannon shells at him underneath his parachute, puncturing holes into his parachute, causing a high-rate of descent which upon landing, broken both his legs and his vertebra; Le Thanh Dao would spend over a year recovering from the injuries before returning to flight duty.[50]
Soviet-Afghan War
Unconfirmed reports from Soviet sources
Syrian Civil War
In September 2015, Russia
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- ^ Jay A. Stout (2012). Fighter Group: The 352nd "Blue-Nosed Bastards" in World War II. Stackpole Books. pp. 125–126.
- ^ Jay A. Stout (2004). Fighter Group: The 352nd "Blue-Nosed Bastards" in World War II. Stackpole Books. pp. 126–127.
- ^ "WWII Brutality Richard 'Bud' Peterson P-51 Ace Interview". YouTube. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
- ^ Donald Caldwell. JG26: Top Guns of the Luftwaffe. p. 249.
- ^ Jay A. Stout (2012). Fighter Group: The 352nd "Blue-Nosed Bastards" in World War II. Stackpole Books. p. 128.
- ^ "Aces of the Luftwaffe – Rudolf Sinner". www.luftwaffe.cz. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
- ^ Mission 376: Battle Over the Reich 28 May 1944. p. 36.
- ^ Jay A. Stout (2012). Fighter Group: The 352nd "Blue-Nosed Bastards" in World War II. Stackpole Books. p. 127.
- ^ Jay A. Stout (2012). Fighter Group: The 352nd "Blue-Nosed Bastards" in World War II. Stackpole Books. pp. 128–129.
- ^ Stephen Darlow (June 2004). D-Day Bombers: The Veterans' Story: RAF Bomber Command and the US Eighth Air Force Support to the Normandy Invasion 1944. Grub Street the Basement. p. 271.
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- ^ Sun, Lianggang. "Shanghai 1937 – Where World War II Began". Shanghai 1937. Archived from the original on 22 October 2018. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
When did World War II begin? Shanghai 1937: Where World War II Began answers that question in a way most audiences will find surprising. Americans might say December 7, 1941… The day the Japanese Imperial Navy attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. For Europeans, it was September 1, 1939… When Nazi Germany invaded Poland. But in China, people will tell you a different date. August 13, 1937.
- ^ "劉烈士蘭清". air.mnd.gov.tw (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Retrieved 25 November 2020.
民國二十六年九月十九日八時許,日軍以艦上輕轟炸機、水上偵察機、單翼驅逐機約三十架空襲南京,我機二十一架自句容、南京各地起飛迎擊。九時許,第十七隊副隊長黃新瑞率波因機五架,在句容上空與敵水機八架遭遇,展開格鬥,互有傷亡。烈士駕一七○一號機與敵纏鬥中,負重傷。跳傘後復被敵機三架追蹤射擊,墜於江寧縣境西成鄉陣亡。
- ^ tom1958 (blogger). "中華民國空軍:黃新瑞". 隨意窩 Xuite日誌. Archived from the original on 17 February 2022. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
九月二十六日起,日機來襲時改用新戰術,每次出動大編隊時轟炸機都有驅逐機護衛而來,我機一數量上雖處於劣勢,但當時仍舊起飛應戰。黃新瑞有次單機挑戰日本「九五」式驅逐機三架,利用波音機爬高優越特性,上下翻騰苦戰不已,但卒因眾我寡,難擺脫左、右、上、下敵機夾擊,座機油箱中彈起火,無奈之下纔棄機跳傘,但鑑於日前同僚劉蘭清因開傘過早,吊在空中被殘暴日軍竟視作活靶,慘被射死教訓,故直至傘離地面很低時才開傘,最後才未遭日軍毒手。
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Anthony R. Carrozza (March 2012). William D. Pawley: The Extraordinary Life of the Adventurer, Entrepreneur, and Diplomat Who Cofounded the Flying Tigers. Potomac Books Inc. p. 101.
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- ^ BEN SHE.YI MING (2007). Col. C.L. Chennault and Flying Tigers. Intercontinental Press. p. 142.
- ^ Brian Cull (2003). Buffaloes Over Singapore: RAF, RAAF, RNZAF and Dutch Brewster Fighters in Action Over Malaya and the East Indies 1941–1942. Grub Street Publishing. p. 139.
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- ^ "Owen Baggett, 85: friend of many, good drummer, one heck of a WWII tale". ABIL. Retrieved 4 November 2015.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Owen John Baggett's Obituary". Express-News. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
- ^ "The M1911 Gets a Zero". www.americanrifleman.org. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
- ^ "The Tragedy of Mission 19". Retrieved 21 December 2014.
- ^ "The Tragedy of Mission 19, p 2". Retrieved 21 December 2014.
- ^ "The Tragedy of Mission 19, p 3". Retrieved 21 December 2014.
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- ^ "K-9 MWD: VSPA.com K-9: Japanese War Crimes". Retrieved 21 December 2014.
- ^ Takai and Sakaida (2001), p. 116
- ^ a b Reeder, William (2016). Through the Valley: My Captivity in Vietnam. (Unknown).
- ^ Toperczer, 2015, pp. 174-175.
- ^ "Name That Toon - Was North Vietnam's Most Feared Flying Ace A Myth?". MilitaryHistoryNow.com. 10 June 2013. Retrieved 1 May 2022.
Some sources have argued that the famous North Vietnamese flier was a complete fabrication. Hanoi propagandists supposedly conjured up the deadly ace to bolster morale on the home front or possibly to scare American pilots. Others claim that the mythical pilot wasn't a concoction of enemy publicists at all, but rather a figment of American pilots' imaginations.
- ^ Hankins, Dr. Michael (29 May 2018). "Inventing the Enemy: Colonel Toon and the Memory of Fighter Combat in Vietnam". From Balloons to Drones. Retrieved 1 May 2022.
The existence of Colonel Toon in the mind of an American pilot may have provided a psychological comfort zone if a North Vietnamese pilot should out-fly him or, even worse, shoot him down... Why does this controversy – and others like it – continue to plague the memory of the Vietnam War? Possibly because losing a war is psychologically devastating... Toon may not exist, but what he represents as a way of dealing with the psychological trauma of warfare, is all too real.
- ^ Toperczer, 2015, pp. 175, 240.
- ^ "Vietnamese Aces - MiG-17 and MiG-21 pilots". acepilots.com. Retrieved 1 May 2022.
Readers familiar with American military aviation may have heard of the legendary Vietnamese ace, Col. Toon (or Col. Tomb). Why is he not listed here? Because, he was precisely that, "legendary"... he was a figment of the American fighter pilots' imagination and ready room chatter. (In fairness to the Americans, "Col. Toon" may have been shorthand for any good Vietnamese pilot, like any solo nighttime nuisance bomber in WW2 was called "Washing Machine Charlie.")
- ^ "Bio, Rudloff, Stephen A." www.pownetwork.org. Retrieved 1 May 2022.
- ^ "Vietnam Air Losses Search Results". www.vietnamairlosses.com. Retrieved 1 May 2022.
Both crew were seen to eject and to land only about 100 yards apart. Lt Rudloff was temporarily blinded during the incident and was taken to the Hanoi Hilton but he had no further direct contact with his pilot... A report that Cdr Blackburn committed suicide by swallowing a cyanide pill circulated after the prisoners returned from Hanoi, but this seems fanciful and cannot be substantiated. His remains were handed over by the Vietnamese government on 10 April 1986 and positively identified in November of that year.
- ^ Toperczer, 2015, pp. 214.
- ^ "The Air War In Afghanistan". www.globalsecurity.org. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
- ^ "Turkey 'shoot down warplane on Syria border'". BBC News. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
- ^ "Turkey downing of Russia jet 'stab in the back' – Putin". BBC News. 24 November 2015. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
Bibliography
- Toperczer, Istvan (2015). MiG Aces of the Vietnam War. USA: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7643-4895-2.