In honor of Memorial Day and also in honor of Honor.....
Look carefully at the B-17 and note how shot up it is - one engine dead,
tail, horizontal stabilizer and nose shot up. It was ready to fall out of the sky.
Then realize that there is a German ME-109 fighter flying next to it.
Read the story below. I think you'll be surprised.
Charlie Brown was a B-17 Flying Fortress pilot with 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 and fighters. The compass was damaged and they were flying deeper over enemy territory, instead of heading home to Kimbolton.
After flying over an enemy airfield, a German pilot named Franz Stigler was
ordered to take off and shoot down the B-17. When he got near the B-17, he could not believe his eyes.
In his words,"I had never seen a plane in such a bad state."
The tail and rear section were severely damaged, and the tail gunner wounded.
The top gunner was all over the top of the fuselage. The nose WA S smashed
and there were holes everywhere .
Despite having ammunition, Franz flew to the side of the B-17 and looked at
Charlie Brown, the pilot. Brown was scared and struggling to control his
damaged and blood-stained plane.
Aware that they had no idea where they were going, Franz waved at Charlie to
turn 180 degrees. Franz escorted and guided the stricken plane to, and
slightly over, the North Sea towards England. He then saluted Charlie Brown
and turned away, back to Europe.
When Franz landed, he told the CO that the plane had been shot down
over the sea, and never told the truth to anybody. Charlie Brown and the remains
of his crew told all at their briefing, but were ordered never to talk about it.
More than 40 years later, Charlie Brown wanted to find the Luftwaffe pilot
who saved the crew. After years of research, Franz was found.
He had never talked about the incident, not even at post-war reunions.
They met in the USA at a 379th Bomber Group reunion, together with 25 people
who are alive now - all because Franz never fired his guns that day.
Research shows that Charlie Brown lived in Seattle and Franz Stigler had
moved to Vancouver,BC after the war. When they finally met, they discovered
that at some point in their lives, they had lived less than 200 miles apart !
True Story, Check Out Snopes.
http://WWW.snopes.Com/military/charliebrown.aspPlease check out the above website. I did and the story is true.
Franz Stigler passed away March 22, 2008