2 days late but one cheerful piece amidst not so cheerful news
December 20th 1943: Ye Olde Pub, a B-17 heavily damaged by flak and enemy fighters, was limping back over Germany when the one-more-to-the-iron-cross ace Franz Stigler got it in his sights. Looking at the flying wreck in disbelief he did not open fire but flew up alongside it where 2nd Lt Charles Brown was fighting keeping the aircraft airborne. Stigler signaled Brown to land but Brown, in shock and not ready to think the German wasn't about to shoot them down, refused. Stigler knew the bomber would have to cross a heavily defended line of flak near the coast and decided to escort the bomber out over the sea, gambling the sight of a BF-109 in formation with the US bomber would stop the batteries from open fire. It paid off and both planes flew out over the sea where Stigler saluted Brown before heading back home, never to mention the episode to anyone for decades. Brown barely made it back, just a few tens of feet over the north sea when he flew in over England. Once he and the surviving crew was debriefed by intel, he was ordered not to mention anything and no medals were awarded to keep a lid on the story. Intel did not want stories out that Germans escorted damaged bombers.
Brown did not know who the German was but as luck would have it, he managed to get in contact with Stigler who was now a Canadian citizen in 1990 and the two men remained close friends until 2008 when both died months apart.
(The book A Higher Call describes the drama and the aftermath for anyone interested)
|