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If people are interested, the story is “The Feeling of Power” [0]. I remember reading this as a child and feeling a profound feeling of sadness. Now I tell myself I’m older and more cynical, but being reminded of it brought a rush of those feelings back... human memory is a strange thing.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Feeling_of_Power

I didn't know about the story yet, but the reality was already very close to that terrible scenario: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachem_Ba_349 (One of the launch sites is quite close to where I live)

That looks like the pilot was intended to survive.

A better comparison would be the Japanese approach. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamikaze

More specifically, the Ohka: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yokosuka_MXY-7_Ohka

Back in WW2 the US worked on pigeon guided bombs but it never got very far. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pigeon

And the Japanese had torpedoes with actual pilots https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiten