[Barrett]

There was genuine chivalry in WW II but perhaps even rarer than the first time around. A 109 pilot I used to know in western Canada found a straggling, battle-damaged B-17 over the North Sea c. Dec '43 and let it go. He could not bring himself to kill 10 men whom he thought probably wouldn't make it home anyway. He didn't report the incident, fearing the reaction of Unser Hermann, and the 8th AF didn't publicize it because of the favorable slant on the Luftwaffe.
Lapse-dissolve, fast forward about 40 years. The B-17 pilot tracked down the 109 pilot through the Gemeinschaft der Jagdflieger and, long story, short, Franz was made a member of the bomb group association. He met most of the 25 children of the B-17 crew who otherwise never would have been born. When you see an unrepentant German fighter pilot pull out his hankie and dab at his eyes, you don't easily forget it.