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There was a "burial at sea" for the kamikaze pilot who removed the carrier Enterprise from the war, likely based on the incredible skill displayed in making a direct hit. He had to first fool the ships gunner's into thinking he would overfly the ship, and then make a 90 degree turn and dive straight down, which he completed successfully.
At 5:30 in the morning of May 14, 1945, Lieutenant Junior Grade Tomiyasu made a sortie from Kanoya Air Base as leader of the Kamikaze Special Attack Corps 6th Tsukuba Squadron, which consisted of 14 Zero fighters each carrying a 500-kg bomb. He evaded heavy antiaircraft fire and crashed into the forward elevator of the aircraft carrier Enterprise (CV-6), the US Navy's most decorated ship in World War II with 20 battle stars. Damage control put out the fires in 30 minutes, but the damage caused by Tomiyasu's plane and its bomb put Enterprise out of the rest of the war as she had to return to the States for repairs. The kamikaze attack killed 13 and wounded 68. The explosion also blew eight crewmen over the side of the carrier, but the destroyer Waldron (DD-699) quickly picked them up.
After the burial at sea for the Enterprise crewmen killed in the attack, there was also a burial at sea for Tomiyasu off the ship's stern. His rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade was discovered from the insignia on his flight suit, and there were also name cards in one of his pockets. The name of these cards was translated incorrectly as Tomi Zai, so this was the name used by Americans for almost 50 years to refer to the kamikaze pilot who hit Enterprise.
Many of the Kamikaze pilots were teenagers. And apparently some were not eager volunteers who unhesitatingly decided to die. Oftentimes commanders would call formation for their airman. There was an order given for those who wanted to sacrifice their lives to publicly raise their hands.
There was tremendous peer pressure to agree to become kamikazes. To not raise your hand would would be a rejection of the samurai warrior ethos and a disgrace to personal and family honor. And there were a significant number of pilots who conveniently had engine trouble and returned to base.
During WWII, a lot of bomber flights went over my old country, and a lot of bombers were lost to Nazi fighter aircraft. In the early years of Nazi occupation - 1940 to 1943 - the burials were carried out by the Nazi military, but with full honors - chaplain, wreath and salute over the grave. Quite decent.
This does not include fallen aircrew found washed up on the shores, who were interred in local cemeteries by the local vicar, just as a dead sailor would be. Danish coastal communities have centuries of experience in doing the decent thing in this sort of situation.
Then, in the autumn of 1943, the Nazis got orders to essentially dig a hole next to the wrecked plane and hurling the bodies into it. This backfired. Vicars, mayors, police commissioners started showing up to hold services - sometimes bodies were even disinterred and moved to the local churchyard.
Most Nazi commanders decided that this was a useless fight (it was) and started to let the locals know that they could pick up the bodies and do as they pleased. Which, for a Nazi, is actually an OK thing to do.
While it might not be exactly "honoring" one's enemy, it certainly shows respect. When General Washington came into possession of General Howe's terrier Lila, Washington returned the dog with the following note:
"General Washington's compliments to General Howe. He does himself the pleasure to return him a dog, which accidentally fell into his hands, and by the inscription on the Collar appears to belong to General Howe."
Early in 1942, Sakai was transferred to Tarakan Island in Borneo and fought in the Dutch East Indies. The Japanese high command instructed fighter patrols to down all enemy aircraft encountered, whether they were armed or not. On a patrol with his Zero over Java, just after shooting down an enemy aircraft, Sakai encountered a civilian Dutch Douglas DC-3 flying at low altitude over dense jungle. Sakai initially assumed it was transporting important people and signaled to its pilot to follow him; the pilot did not obey. Sakai descended and approached the DC-3. He then saw a blonde woman and a young child through a window, along with other passengers. The woman reminded him of Mrs. Martin, an American who occasionally had taught him as a child in middle school and had been kind to him. He ignored his orders and flew ahead of the pilot, signaling him to go ahead. The pilot and passengers saluted him.[7] Sakai did not mention the encounter in the aerial combat report.[8]
During the Borneo campaign, Sakai achieved 13 more victories before he was grounded by illness. When he recovered three months later in April, Petty Officer First Class Sakai joined a squadron (chutai) of the Tainan Kōkūtai under Sub-Lieutenant Junichi Sasai at Lae, New Guinea. Over the next four months, he scored the majority of his victories, flying against American and Australian pilots based at Port Moresby.
On the night of 16 May, Sakai and his colleagues, Hiroyoshi Nishizawa and Toshio Ota, were listening to a broadcast of an Australian radio program, when Nishizawa recognized the eerie "Danse Macabre" of Camille Saint-Saëns. Inspired by this, Nishizawa came up with the idea of doing demonstration loops over the enemy airfield. The next day, his squadron included fellow aces Hiroyoshi Nishizawa and Toshio Ōta. At the end of an attack on Port Moresby that had involved 18 Zeros,[9] the trio performed three tight loops in close formation over the allied air base. Nishizawa indicated he wanted to repeat the performance. Diving to 6,000 ft (1,800 m), the three Zeros did three more loops, without receiving any AA fire from the ground. The following day, a lone Allied bomber flew over the Lae airfield and dropped a note attached to a long cloth ribbon. A soldier picked up the note and delivered to the squadron commander. It read (paraphrased): "Thank you for the wonderful display of aerobatics by three of your pilots. Please pass on our regards and inform them that we will have a warm reception ready for them, next time they fly over our airfield". The squadron commander was furious and reprimanded the three pilots for their stupidity, but the Tainan Kōkūtai's three leading aces felt Nishizawa's aerial choreography of the "Danse Macabre" had been worth it
The battle of Saipan saw the largest banzai charge of WWII. Over 6000 Japanese rushed Marines and Army infantry in a headlong assault on July 7th, 1944. The commanding General Saito’s body was discovered in a cave and given a full military burial.
The Zulu salute at Rorkes Drift? Well it's in the film anyway but I don't know if it actually happened! :-)
That was just in the film. I was curious about it and did some checking. No such episode appears in any of the accounts of the battle.
There was an instance of honoring the enemy which wound up killing some of them. After Major Anderson surrendered Fort Sumter, General Beauregard permitted the garrison to evacuate with all their personal belongings, and stage a salute to the US flag as it was lowered and replaced. A spark from one of the numerous fires still burning in the fort prematurely triggered one of the cannons as it was being loaded, killing the unfortunate loader. Sparks from that explosion set off another explosion among powder bags, injuring five, one of whom died later.
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