Timoshka (asker) Apr 13, 2022:

@ Steffen Walter It refers to the German pilot, who was preparing to land his damaged plane in Memmingen.

Steffen Walter Apr 13, 2022:

Thank you, Björn ... ... for taking a deeper dive into the intricacies of English usage.

@Timoshka: Does this "Fallschirmabsprung" refer to the (US?) B-17 pilot or to the German fighter pilot this note refers to primarily?

Björn Vrooman Apr 13, 2022:

UK vs US (hello Steffen!)

I assume the quote below is taken from https://www.dailywritingtips.com/bail-out-vs-bale-out/

CadastreToulous is right that there has been a lot of debate about the difference in spelling. However, please note that "it is nonstandard in America to use" bale, as the "metaphor in the US is to compare oneself when jumping out of a plane to a bucket of water being tossed out of a boat, though that is probably not the origin of the phrase." https://brians.wsu.edu/2016/05/19/bail-bale/

Confirmed by Merriam-Webster and this one:

"The comparatively huge increase in bale out in BrE sources during the Second World War would indicate that aircraft were baled out of; changing the plot to include of in the phrases searched yields a graph of very similar shape.

By comparison, American English shows a similar hump for bail out during WW2, but bale out has always been less popular. The scale is the same as the first chart: note how bale is still relatively popular in BrE even now."
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/542474/in-britis...

Don't know whether asker needs UK or US English, so this info might prove useful.

Best wishes

Steffen Walter Apr 13, 2022:

Thank you ... ... for this piece of enlightening information. Looks as if this were trickier than I initially thought.

Bourth Apr 13, 2022:

bale/bail There is a lot of discussion about this. Both are used, and authorities give a range of explanations about why their preference is right. For ex. "The Guardian/Observer Style Guide has adopted the spelling bale for both jumping from an airplane and for pouring water out of a boat:
bail out a prisoner, a company or person in financial difficulty; but bale out a boat or from an aircraft.'