Just some quotes to show that the issues we argue about here are the things the pilots back then were struggling with also.

Won't it be nice when all this beastly killing is over, and we can enjoy ourselves and not hurt anyone? I hate this game.

— Captain Albert Ball, RFC, in letters to his father and fiancée. Ball was the first British ace idolized by the public, 44 victories when killed in action. 6 May 1917.




To the aircraft I aim, not the man.

— Francesco Baracca, Italy's leading ace of WWI, in Italian "è all'apparecchio che io miro non all'uomo," the prancing horse emblem he sported on his aircraft was used by Enzo Ferrari on his cars. Corpo Aeronautico Militare, 34 victories WWI.




You don't think much of the individual, because you don't think you've hit him and you hope that he will bail out or something; it's the aeroplane you've hit . . . normally it was more of a game if you like, you were outwitting and shooting down another aircraft, you were simply hitting metal.

— Wing commander Pete Malam Brothers, RAF, 16 victories WWII. Imperial War Museum Sound 7462.




My habit of attacking Huns dangling from their parachutes led to many arguments in the mess. Some officers, of the Eton and Sandhurst type, thought it was 'unsportsmanlike' to do it. Never having been to a public school, I was unhampered by such considerations of form. I just pointed out that there was a bloody war on, and that I intended to avenge my pals.

— Captain James Ira Thomas 'Taffy' Jones, RFC, 37 victories in 3 months W.W.I.



for the aspirants who feel getting a kill is impossible
When one has shot down one's first, second or third opponent, then one begins to find out how the trick is done.

— Baron Manfred von Richtofen.