h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Two very different accounts from WWII that I have heard give two very different view points of what people are capable of.
The first is an account from Grandmother, she lived (and still does) in Nottingham and worked at the Boots factory there. During one air raid (if I recall it was a daytime raid) a German plane was seen to dive and bring it's guns to bare on people in the street. I'm not entirely convinvced of the authenticity of this (which is bad seeing as my Nan told me it), surely people would have been in air raid shelters, was Nottingham ever attacked by day and surely a pilot wouldn't waste his fuel and ammunition on people in the street? Maybe someone could authenticate this?
The second story is of a naval battle (sorry I don't know the ships involved) in which a Royal Navy ship was sunk by the German Navy. British survivors in the water were shocked when the German ship came towards them firing it's machine guns into the water. However once picked up by the German's they were taken down to the engine rooms, given blankets and brandy to warm them and the German Captain came to see them, he apologised for scaring them with the machine guns but explained he was just keeping sharks at bay! Maybe somebody knows this story and the ships involved?
As you see 2 very different stories one (assuming it's real) showing how violently we can act, and the other showing compassion to the enemy. Does anybody know of any similar events carried out by the British?

My uncle was on a beach in Scotland, just laying about when a German fighter dove out of the sun and straffed the beach. Why he attacked a group of civilians is totally unknown but my uncle was so shocked by the sudden violence he hid under a tree until calmed down and talked back into the open. Single small aircraft were not always picked up by the crude radar of the time.

But surely fighters were used as bomber escorts?

ME 110 long range fighters were often used by the germans as "tip and run" fighter bombers against targets in Eastern Scotland and the North of England. They were flown from bases in Norway mostly as nuisance raids but were successful in keeping several squadrons of the hard pressed RAF pinned down in the north away from the "real" action.