A British pilot is being taken to an hospital by German soldiers. German Jasta officers never hesitated to invite allied shot down pilots to sit at their table for lunch or dinner before being escorted to a prisoner camp. Several accounts state that some allied pilots remained several days completely free on German airfields if they gave their word they wouldn’t try to escape. They were able to play cards, football, read, and listen some music with their counterparts in a very relaxed and friendly way.
"Civilized," indeed - in fact a shared civilization to which they'd all contributed.
ReplyDeleteA population of 4th-century goat herders would never understand.
The concept of knighthood would have been familiar to the pilot community,many of whom in WW1 would have been aristocracy, the descendants of European nobility.They would treat fellow aviators as respected peers rather than mere enemy "personnel". When the West discarded the concept of nobility in the early 20th century,having killed off the bravest of Europe's aristocrats, a lot of babies got thrown out with the bathwater
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