What was aerial combat like in WW1? Is it true there was a degree of chivalry and mutual respect among opposing pilots that wasn't seen among soldiers on the ground?
>>903378
>chivalry
At first, and to some pilots, throughout the entire war. Many of our modern theories on dogfighting were formed during the Great War, and for some of those tactics to be put down as the metaphorical holy word, some men treated the fights with nothing but unchivalrous lethal intent.
Eh. I remember one of the biggest tactics was making it so if you're opponent was coming at you, they had to fly with sun in their eyes.
Not so chivalrous to me.
>>903378
M8 it all started when Observer pilots -whose only job was to observe each others lines- stopped waving at each other and someone threw a fucking brick at a pilot.
The first confirmed air to air kill was by an angry Russian pilot crashing his plane to an Austro-Hungarian one.
>>903378
>Is it true there was a degree of chivalry and mutual respect among opposing pilots that wasn't seen among soldiers on the ground?
Kind of. Even in WW2 the treatment of downed allied airmen when in custody of the Luftwaffe was markedly better than the alternatives. For example the SS had a policy of allowing citizens to capture or intervene with the capture of said airmen knowing the mob was likely to kill them. There are monuments to American bomber crews in Germany to memorialize the civilian killings of US airmen who were blamed for the RAF's firebombing of civilian targets.
Just as there are examples of chivalry, there are exceptions;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8LVlYJ5eJU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4pnTrjEjd0&list=PLGaYIdMehuNKoB6qMinzXRftRti66CeIO
>>903378
Compared to WW2 combat, it was a lot more focused on maneuverability and durability than speed or firepower (a nation some nations, most notably Japan, would continue to base their Aircraft designs on until the end of the piston era). A lot of battles were decided simply on who could get a bead on who first, and until later on in the war, it was quite wild with most pilots only using their own maneuvers.
Also generally a lot lower to the ground, which made AA more of a threat than the deterrence it was in the next war. In fact, AA was responsible for quite a bit of friendly fire until the standardization of roundels came about.
>>904192
*a lesson some nations
>>903378
>Is it true there was a degree of chivalry and mutual respect among opposing pilots that wasn't seen among soldiers on the ground?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_truce
>>903378
Early on they would fight with darts because they didn't have mounted guns; Ranken darts were used by biplane pilots to take on airships.
>>903426
The second being the use of a pistol to shoot the other pilot. I can't imagine what the other pilot did to piss the pistol-toting airman off.
>>903378
most of the pilots were from very rich families who had studied at eton (for instance the Red Baron his squadron were all eton boys, as were most of the british fighters) so they knew eachother from before the war
>>903378
Consider it was an aristocratic war and pilots were taught the aristocratic protocols of behaviour if they were not already aristocrats. So they had some degrees of honor at first
