Look carefully at the B-17 and note how shot up it is - one engine dead, tail, horizontal stabilizer andnose shot up. It was ready to fall out of the sky. (This is a paintingdone by an artist from the description of both pilots many years later.)Then realize that there is a German ME-109 fighter flying next to it. Nowread the story below. I think you'll be surprised.....
Charlie Brown was a B-17 Flying Fortress pilotwith the 379th Bomber Group at Kimbolton , England . His B-17 was called'Ye Old Pub' and was in a terrible state, having been hit by flak andfighters. The compass was damaged and they were flying deeper over enemyterritory instead of heading home to Kimbolton.
After flyingthe B-17 over an enemy airfield, a German pilot named Franz Steigler wasordered to take off and shoot down the B-17. When he got near the B-17, hecould not believe his eyes. In his words, he 'had never seen a plane insuch a bad state'. The tail and rear section was severely damaged, and thetail gunner wounded. The top gunner was all over the top of the fuselage.The nose was smashed and there were holes everywhere.
Despite having ammunition, Franz flew to the side of the B-17and looked at Charlie Brown, the pilot. Brown was scared and struggling tocontrol his damaged and blood-stained plane.
BF-109 pilot Franz StiglerB-17pilot Charlie Brown.
Aware that they had no idea where they were going, Franz wavedat Charlie to turn 180 degrees. Franz escorted and guided the strickenplane to, and slightly over, the North Sea towards England . He thensaluted Charlie Brown and turned away, back to Europe . When Franzlanded he told the CO that the plane had been shot down over the sea, andnever told the truth to anybody. Charlie Brown and the remains of his crewtold all at their briefing, but were ordered never to talk about it.
More than 40 years later, Charlie Brown wanted to find theLuftwaffe pilot who saved the crew. After years of research, Franz wasfound. He had never talked about the incident, not even at post-warreunions.
They met in the USA at a 379th Bomber Group reunion,together with 25 people who are alive now - all because Franz never firedhis guns that day.
(L-R) German Ace Franz Stigler, artist ErnieBoyett, and B-17 pilot Charlie Brown.
When asked why he didn’t shoot them down,Stigler later said, ‘I didn't have the heart to finish those bravemen. I flew beside them for a long time. They were tryingdesperately to get home and I was going to let them do that. I couldnot have shot at them. It would have been the same as shooting at aman in a parachute.’
Both men died in 2008.
THIS WAS BACK IN THE DAYS WHEN THERE WAS HONOR INBEING A WARRIOR..THEY PROUDLY WORE UNIFORMS, AND THEY DIDN'T HIDE INAMBUSH INSIDE A MOSQUE, OR BEHIND WOMEN AND CHILDREN, NOR DID THEYUSE MENTALLY RETARDED WOMEN AS SUICIDE BOMBERS TO TARGET AND KILLINNOCENT CIVILIANS...HOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED......
