WW-II: HUMANITY WINS IN SKY
The Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler
Incident
SARASIJ MAJUMDER
The date was 20 December 1943, 4 days before Christmas..
A box formation of Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers were flying
back from a successful mission targeting the Focke-Wulf aircraft production facility
in Bremen, northwest war-torn Nazi Germany.
2nd Lt. Charlie Brown, a 21 years old farm boy from West
Virginia, found himself the pilot of 'Ye Old Pub', a heavily damaged B-17F with
four crew members injured and one killed. German flak cannons knocked out one
engine, damaged another and ripped away half of the rear elevator.
Falling behind the bomber’s formation, Charlie Brown found
himself face to face with Franz Stigler, a German veteran Luftwaffe ace. With 22 victories and only one
more to get his Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross medal
(the highest award made by Nazi Germany to recognize extreme battlefield
bravery) Stigler was gazing through his Messerschmitt Bf 109 gun-sight to the worn-out
B17 with amazement, every foot of the bomber had a hole. "How on earth are
they still flying?" he said to himself.
With his finger on the fire trigger, Stigler was waiting for
the bomber's 50 Caliber machine guns to entertain him. But back in the killing
machine's cockpit, Brown and his crew were scared to the bone. Frozen due to
the high-altitude low temperature, the defence machine guns failed to fire. The
crew realized they were on a flying coffin, rather than a flying fortress.
Puzzled, Stigler flew closer to the bomber tail gunner
window, just to see shattered glass stained in red with the gunner man shot
dead and his head missing. Flying parallel to the bomber now, he saw a wounded
man's face, he suddenly remembered his brother's face, his ace brother who got
shot and killed by this very enemy. Looking further to the cockpit, he saw the 21-year-old
pilot and his co-pilot staring out at him. Shocked in terror and disbelief,
Brown closed his eyes for seconds, hoping what he saw from his window isn't
real. But the enemy was still there when he opened them. "No bullets fly,
what on earth is he waiting for?!"
Risking his own life and his Knight Cross, the German pilot
held back his bullets, sparing their lives and escorting the enemy's bomber
right across German lines out of the kill zone to England, staying just off
their wing so anti-aircraft guns wouldn't fire, then -with a short salute-
departed back to Germany. He never got Night Cross.
Against all odds, 40 years later (and after an
extensive search by Charlie Brown) the two pilots met each other, and
between 1990 - 2008 they developed a life-long friendship -or should I say
BROTHERHOOD- that lasted until their deaths several months apart!
Many remarkable stories from this most turbulent time in world history have lost. This survived.
It is the story of grace and mercy. It is the story of
respect between enemies. It is the story of the survival of the spirit during a
long war. It is the story of hope for MANKIND.
REFERENCES:-
1.A high call by Adam Makos
and Lary Alexander.
2.0 Web site: Aviation Geek
Club.
3.0 A high call—Cinema by
Devon Motion Pictures.
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