The bomber did not surrender. It did not land and/or seek sanctuary with a neutral party, even though both options were the more humane. It was not a wounded soldier trying to stay alive: it was still fighting and showed no intention of surrender. Today, the German pilot should have shot it down or be punished for allowing a combatant to so escape.
Chivalry is all well and good but, like so many other stories from that war, this reminds me of the speech in Remains of the Day where the American congressman calls all the old powers amateurs, that the coming war (WWII) wouldn't be prevented by a agreement between gentlemen over dinner. Imagine the outrage today if a US soldier allowed a wounded ISIS fighter to limp home with his weapon rather than capture him. Conversely, imagine what would happen to that wounded ISIS fighter should his compatriots see him fail to kill the hesitant US soldier. War has moved on.
Until you've had to kill people yourself, seen the results, and lived with yourself afterwards, I don't think you have anything to say about what someone else has been in that situation and decided not to kill that day.
Which is why civilians have laws and soldiers have their orders: to overcome personal morality. That bomber pilot came back, so did the german fighter pilot, as would the ISIS fighter. Orders and laws recognize the bigger picture.
The structure operates both ways. We punish soldiers for applying their morality above orders because often that morality tells them to kill where their commanders don't want them too. In this case the soldier's moral code told him to disobey orders by not killing, but what about those situations where the soldier's moral code tells to disobey orders by killing? That leads to revenge, torture and all manner of illegal horrors ... which is why after WWII we setup a host of laws meant specifically to further usurp such decisions. The lesson was that, despite some noble stories, the decisions of gentlemen could no longer be trusted.
Chivalry is all well and good but, like so many other stories from that war, this reminds me of the speech in Remains of the Day where the American congressman calls all the old powers amateurs, that the coming war (WWII) wouldn't be prevented by a agreement between gentlemen over dinner. Imagine the outrage today if a US soldier allowed a wounded ISIS fighter to limp home with his weapon rather than capture him. Conversely, imagine what would happen to that wounded ISIS fighter should his compatriots see him fail to kill the hesitant US soldier. War has moved on.