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 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, ba ck 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 Steigler had moved to Vancouver , BC after the war. When they finally met, th! ey discovered they had lived less than 200 miles apart for the past 50 years!
True
http://www.snopes.com/military/charliebrown.asp
THIS WAS BACK IN THE DAYS WHEN THERE WAS HONOR IN BEING A WARRIOR...THEY PROUDLY WORE UNIFORMS, AND THEY DIDN'T HIDE IN AMBUSH INSIDE A MOSQUE, OR BEHIND WOMEN AND CHILDREN, NOR DID THEY USE MENTALLY RETARDED WOMEN AS SUICIDE BOMBERS TO TARGET AND KILL INNOCENT CIVILIANS......HOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED.....*******************************
11 comments:
One pilot respecting another for the sheer fact he was a fellow human being. Good story
If it was just those two then who took the picture?
The pics have got to be photo shopped just to add a visual to the story.
Cool story. It is nice that they got to finally meet.
Ummm, the crew did not number 25. 9 or 10 max.
to Anonymous 9:44 AM
The five crewmen who survived the
war (of the original nine) had
children after the war and these children eventually had children and grand children. These people
make up the 25 who would otherwise
not be alive today.
"Straighten up and fly right"
Phil H.
Franz MUST have fired his guns that day. If he didn't, after he returned to his airfield his plane's armorer would have noticed
and wondered how he shot the B-17 down over the sea....a serious
disobedience of orders of his superior.
Phil H.
Everyone knows there were no cameras back then. The were invented waaaay after the Civil War!
Fool me once, shame on you...fool me twice.....um....I don't remember the rest.
Anonymous of 12:18 PM
Your a moron, the civil war happen well before WWI or WWII... With that, if cameras were during the civil war, then yes they had cameras... Far as someone taking this picture, I think its fake with PS involved... As one stated above, if there were only them 2 in the sky who took the pic...
It's called a painting! Artist's impression! Have a look it the bottom right hand corner .... (artist's signature!!!)
Of course it is a painting, and it was done using descriptions from both pilots. As for photography during the Civil War, Google Matthew Brady.
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