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December 20th, 1943: The Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler incident.

by Joe Mobley
1 replies
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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 ace Franz Stigler had the opportunity to shoot down the crippled bomber, but for humane reasons, he decided to allow the crew to fly back to RAF Kimbolton in England.

After an extensive search by Brown, the two pilots met each other 40 years later and developed a friendship that lasted until Stigler's death in March 2008.
Franz Stigler
Brown's damaged bomber was spotted by Germans on the ground, including Franz Stigler, who was refueling and rearming at an airfield.

He soon took off in his Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6 (which had a .50 Browning Machine Gun bullet embedded in the radiator, which risked the engine overheating) and quickly caught up with Brown's plane.

Through the damaged bomber's airframe Stigler was able to see the injured and incapacitated crew. To the American pilot's surprise, Stigler did not open fire on the crippled bomber.

Stigler recalled the words of one of his commanding officers from Jagdgeschwader 27, Gustav Rödel, during his time fighting in North Africa, "If I ever see or hear of you shooting at a man in a parachute, I will shoot you myself."

Stigler later commented, "To me, it was just like they were in a parachute. I saw them and I couldn't shoot them down."
An interesting story.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charli...igler_incident


Joe Mobley
  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    So Stigler placed more value on saving his own ass rather than suffer the wrath of a commanding officer.

    I imagine If he had never met the commanding officer that warned him about taking out parachutes the Wikipedia article wouldn't exist and no books published on the subject.

    Strange how split second decisions can impact so many different things. Brown wouldn't have went on to college, would have never made a speech in Alabama, would have never had his own family, worked with colleagues or invented anything. All these things would have involved 10s/100s/1000s of other people over Browns lifespan after the war. Now multiple that times the other 9 surviving crew members lives after the war.

    It's the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.
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