A WWII Armourer's shop photo.

[CINDERS]

References, etc,

This is what I read in one of my softcover books and retained it as in the very early WWI days of the air war pilots took up rifles, bricks, pistols plus I seem to recall something along the lines of grappling devices possibly with weight on them to disrupt control of the enemy aircraft.
Until the advent of the interrupter gear which the French designed and the Germans captured an aircraft intact copied and improved on it M.G's were either (On fighters) mounted on the top wing or were mounted in front of the pilot either side of the fuselage to fire outside the propeller arc, so aim off shooting like the royal navy did for target practice in WWII.

I cannot say which book and where sorry Daan as it would be in with the 1500+ titles I have stored in sealed styrofoam boxes inside my shed the reason I retained this information is because it was just so far out of left field using rifles, pistols etc and not bailing out of a doomed aircraft.

Either way F10 the result was the same but if one had the choice of a 7000 foot plunge to the deck or an instantaneous demise then I think the choice would be pretty simple.