I’m hoping there are a few experts out there who may know the answer to this non-modeling question…
On the ground and on water a vehicle or a warfighter can surrender or attempt to surrender for whatever reason. BUT how can a pilot surrender while he’s flying and maybe even evading an enemy? It mgiht not be the bravest or most practical thing to do, but it may be mentioned in the Geneva Convention or there might be a code among piliots that indicates “I surrender.” Perhaps this code or offcial rules have changed with technology. I’m interested in whatever you may have read, heard or seen.
I have heard that it is internationally recognized that a pilot wishing to surrender will lower his landing gear. There are a lot of instances of this in WWII. One of the more interesting ones that I have seen involves a B-17 from the 100th Bomb Group. the plane was under attack from three 109’s in the summer of 1943. The pilot dropped the landing gear, and began an easy descent. With the three 109’s formed up on him, he then ordered his gunners to open fire. They shot down all three 109’s, with one of the Germans bailing out. Not sure about if there is any truth to it…
As far as I know, and I have no experience with the services, is that the surrendering/defecting pilot would slow down at a low-ish altitude, drop his landing gear, wiggle his wings and pray that his intentions were understood by his opponent. I would assume that flying in a non-combative way would help that understanding.
I don’t think there are layed down rules for an aircraft to surrender, as in the case of land forces raiseing a white flag. But i also think the wheels down approach is a sort of un officail thing.
If it was official and the account F-8 posted was true, that would be a serious violation of the rules of war. I do recall an account of a B-17 being damaged and the landing gear coming down and it was pursued back to a base in France, maybe thats the same one. And thats a problem with useing it as a means of surrender. Who’s to know if its not some sort of malfunction.
All the descriptions I see on this state that dropping the gear was “internationally recognized” as an indication of surrender…though I do not believe that it was set forth in the Geneva Convention or anything. I also know that in Desert Storm, we dropped leaflets all over Iraq that informed the Iraqis what to do if they wanted to surrender to coalition troops. Pilots wishing to surrender were informed that they were to drop their landing gear, turn on their landing lights, safe all weapons, and fly no faster than 300 knots.
I think it depends on where you are attempting to land. I think I read Walter Oeseau was shot down trying to land his plane after a prolonged dogfight, however he was flying over Germany so trying to land on a German held airfield so his landing wouldn’t really be a surrender. However if he were to try land on an allied airfield then they may have let him land and then accepted his surrender.
I’m not sure where I read it, so I can’t quote a source (it may even have been fictional), but I seem to recall reading somewhere that at least some aircraft have a safety interlock system which prevents weapons from being fired when the undercarriage is down (or perhaps when there is weight on the u/c?).
Not sure about all modern aircraft, but I know in the case of the F-16, there is a “WOW” switch in the system, for “weight on wheels”, that prevents firing of weapons when the landing gear is down. However, there is also a switch in the cockpit labeled “ground jett enable”…this overrides the WOW switch and is intended to be used for maintenance checks on the ground. I remember hearing about a Maverick missile that was accidentally fired from an F-16 during Desert Storm because this switch was in the wrong place while the plane was on the ground.
I just read the book ‘The Mighty Eighth’ and the author debunked this story. Apparently the 100th took massive losses in a number of missions and a rumor started that this happened and the that Luftwaffe pilots were singling out 100th BG planes. Truth is after the war we found out that no such thing happened - the Germans were hitting any planes in exposed positions. The 100th just had a string of really bad luck. In fact the group that opened fire after ‘surrendering’ in the story changed back and forth throughout the war depending on who took the most losses. Still the 100th got the name ‘The Bloody Hundredth’ out of the tale.
In the book, The Missiles of Zajecar, by William F. Halstead, the pilot of a B-24 does that “lower the gear to surrender, then shoot” ruse on an Fw190 pilot… The 190 is hit and burns, but the badly burned German pilot manages to land, survives, and swears revenge on that bomber’s crew… Really a good book… Only about 175 pages, but still a great read… Hallstead musta heard about 100th BG thing, lol…
The P-61’s 20mm cannons wouldn’t fire if weight was on the nosewheel… There was a built-in safety switch on the nosegear oleo scissorsThe aircraft’s tail had to pulled down, and then a jackstand or fuel drum was put under the fuselage just aft of the wheel-well and the fuselage was let down to rest on it… Dunno about the P-38 and P-39…
its true, thats how they ended up getting the nickname “bloody 100th” that surviving pilot told his bosses that the tail code letter was the square d, the word got out and the the luftwaffe proceeded to light 'em up every chance they got!