General Chat

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 the B-17 over an enemy airfield, a German pilot named Franz Steigler 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, he 'had never seen a plane in such a bad state'. The tail and rear section was severely damaged, and the tail 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-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.





When asked why he didn't shoot them down, Stigler later said, I didn't have the heart to finish those brave men. I flew beside them for a long time. They were trying desperately to get home and I was going to let them do that. I could not have shot at them. It would have been the same as shooting at a man in a parachute.


Both men died in 2008.

What a wonderful story, to hear stories of compassion amongst the horrors of war .......

Gosh, that brought a tear to my eye, what a wonderful story.

Harpstrings x

My Dad was working in a prisoner of war camp in WW2, and became friendly with a German prisoner. They stayed in contact, and my parents visited them in Germany and they visited us in England.
Liz

Oh my goodness I have goose pimples and am filling up.

Restores your faith in human nature these stories of such great compassion.

He was a fighter pilot, not a cold blooded murderer,,,fair play

the full story goto.

http://www.snopes.com/military/charliebrown.asp

Its a shame Steiglers counterpart in WW1 Von Richthofen (Red Baron)
did not share his compassion

The Red Baron on return from bombing missions found it amusing,
to cut his engine and swoop down out of the sky in the early morning
dawn, then shout out in english OI as he proceeded to empty his,
machine gun into the half asleep allied troops huddled like,
sitting ducks in the trenches of the western front,,,,,brave man ???

This true account was passed along the trenches and later told,
to me by my grandfather who died in 1983 aged 89

Ray