Too Good not to share

[Tribunus]

From the BBC WWII the peoples War

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, 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 children and

grandchildren who are alive because Franz never fired his guns that day.

[GreyKnight]

Class indeed!

[T_O_A_D]

Yeh read that once before, heck of a story.

Makes ya wonder how often it did happen but the crews failed to make it, ot just never said anything.