When a Bf-109 spared a stricken B-17

it was December the 20th 1943 and in the freezing air high above Germany second lieutenant Charles Charlie Brown struggled to keep his mortally damaged American bomber on course Brown had been wounded in the shoulder his tail gunner sergeant Hugh ecchi eken and several other members of the crew were wounded some severely their aircraft b-17 the old pub had been hit twice by flak as it approached its target the FACA wolf plant in the German city of Bremen forcing the crew to shut down one of the engines and fall back on another listed left--it lagging behind

the main formation of aircraft when 379th bombardment group and groups of German fighters had closed in like sharks sensing the blood in the water up to 15 fighters had attacked the bomber and the whole tail section was shot to pieces the nose cone was missing the electrical hydraulic and oxygen systems were damaged the radio was out and the entrails of the crippled bomber flat in the slipstream through gaping Reds diffuser the b-17s are tough old birds and this one somehow kept on flying despite the damage Brown blacked out for a short time due to pain

loss of blood and a lack of oxygen and the Bombers spiralling towards the ground Brown came to and realized that the b-17 was only a few hundred feet above the ground he somehow managed to get it back under control and turned west towards England and safety 250 miles away Brown wasn't able to coax the b-17 much above 1,000 feet and he was vaguely aware that he had passed close to the perimeter of a German airfield soon after he realized that a german messerschmitt bf-109 was flying in close formation beside him it was so close that

Brown could see the German pilot nearly gestured towards the ground telling Brown to set the bomber down most of the b-17s gunners were wounded only a few guns were still working and none were able to shoot at the enemy fighter alongside Brown could only look on the German pilot and shake his head for a short time the Messerschmitt flew beside then it slid away above and behind brown waste for the gunfire that must mean the end of ye olde pub but nothing happened he realized to his astonishment that the German fighter was flying escort on

the b-17 as they crossed the coast line and flew out over the North Sea that fighter remained on station only when they were well out from the German Coast that the fliter slide in again close to the bomber Brown looked across and the German pilot looked back at him raised a gloved hand in salute and then swung his aircraft away back towards the east Brown managed to put the old pub on the ground not at their home base in Cambridgeshire but at an air base of the 448 Bomb Group near Norfolk in East Anglia he

and all his crew other than the tail gunner survived at debriefing Brown told his story about the German fighter which has courted him it was decided that this should be kept secret the notion of an honorable German pilot choosing not to shoot down a damaged American bomber just didn't fit with the message that the US Air Force wanted to give out Charlie Brown survived the war when home to go to college and then rejoined the Air Force in 1949 he served until 1965 when he retired as a colonel it wasn't until much later in 1986

at a meeting of retired combat pilots called gathering of the Eagles that he first spoke about what had happened the response was strong though some questioned whether the whole incident really happened even Brown began to wonder his memories of that day in 1943 were hazy due to his injuries exhaustion and the stress of combat could he be remembering at all wrong Brown decided that he was going to find the German pilot involved if only to prove that he hadn't imagined the whole thing it took four years but in 1990 Brown finally received a letter from

a man named Stigler who was living in Canada Stigler explained that he had been the pilot of the German fighter who had escorted yield pup on December the 20th 1943 Franz Stigler had been at 27 kills pilot he had flown against American bombers in his Messerschmitt Bf 109 g6 that morning and he was refueling on the ground when the old pardon passed close by he took off intending to shoot down the American bomber however as he closed with the limping aircraft he could see just how badly had been hit he would like to say they

had never seen a more severely damaged aircraft still flying stigler's commander had told his pilots never to fire at an enemy who was descending on a parachute while the crew of yeild pub hadn't bailed out they were clearly no longer capable of fighting and stickler decided that he couldn't bring himself to attack instead he flew alongside and gestured to ground to land he just simply couldn't imagine that the crippled aircraft could possibly make it back to England when Brown refused steepler made an extraordinary decision instead of shooting it down he flew close formation of the

b-17 hoping that this would deter flak batteries on the coast from firing at it he flew with the bomber while out over the North Sea until it was clear of German airspace and then left it to continue towards England stickler never told anyone about what had happened sparing an American bomber would likely have led to punishment and perhaps even execution but he often wondered if it made it back to base Stiegler continued flying fighters throughout the war in 1953 he immigrated from Germany to Canada where he started a successful business when he heard from Charlie

Brown in 1990 Stiegler confirmed every aspect of his story Franz Stigler and Charlie Brown were astonished to discover that they had been living less than 200 miles apart for much of the time since the war Stigler had settled in Vancouver British Columbia while Brown was in Seattle Washington in the latter year as the two men remained close friends often visiting and talking to other fliers about their shared experiences [Music] you [Music]