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I do know that German pilots that died over here were buried with full military honours during the early stages of the war, and so perhaps behaviour was different back then on both sides as regards pilot prisoners.
If I may also mention the case of British Fighter Ace Group Captain Sir Douglas Bader, CBE, DSO, & Bar, DFC, DL, FRAes- Upon being shot down by the Germans, Sir Douglas' prosthetic legs were quite damaged. The Germans undertook to repair these prosthetic legs to the best of their abilities. This is not quite as simple as it sounds. I myself, have a prosthetic right leg, and these types of items are custom-made and fitted to the individual, i.e, NO TWO are exactly alike. Repairs can be difficult, and ofttimes the entire prosthetic device needs to be replaced, altogether...
A message from the LUFTWAFFE was dropped over England, requesting that Sir Douglas' spare prosthetic legs be dropped over a German-occupied area by the RAF, "for humanitarian reasons". Hermann Goering himself sanctioned this message to be dropped over England. The RAF proceeded to do so, but they accompanied the drop of Sir Douglas' spare "legs" with an attack raid! The Germans couldn't have been very happy over that...
But in all fairness, at the same time, the LUFTWAFFE was still carrying out raids against Great Britain, so one has to question "chivalry" in wartime...
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