odanny
Diamond Member
No, not that Charlie Brown, the B-17 pilot of "Ye Olde Pub" and Bf-109 ace Franz Stigler, when the Luftwaffe pilot showed mercy on the damaged B-17. Pretty cool that both pilots met with each other in 1990. They are in the Youtube video.
Of course, for Stigler, there was the moral dilemma of letting someone go who you knew would return to bomb your country.
The Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler incident occurred on 20 December 1943, when, after a successful bomb run on Bremen, 2nd Lt Charles "Charlie" Brown's B-17 Flying Fortress (named "Ye Olde Pub") was severely damaged by German fighters. Luftwaffe pilot Franz Stigler had the opportunity to shoot down the crippled bomber but did not do so, and instead escorted it over and past German-occupied territory so as to protect it. After an extensive search by Brown, the two pilots met each other 50 years later and developed a friendship that lasted until Stigler's death in March 2008. Brown died only a few months later, in November of the same year.
en.wikipedia.org
Of course, for Stigler, there was the moral dilemma of letting someone go who you knew would return to bomb your country.
The Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler incident occurred on 20 December 1943, when, after a successful bomb run on Bremen, 2nd Lt Charles "Charlie" Brown's B-17 Flying Fortress (named "Ye Olde Pub") was severely damaged by German fighters. Luftwaffe pilot Franz Stigler had the opportunity to shoot down the crippled bomber but did not do so, and instead escorted it over and past German-occupied territory so as to protect it. After an extensive search by Brown, the two pilots met each other 50 years later and developed a friendship that lasted until Stigler's death in March 2008. Brown died only a few months later, in November of the same year.
