It has 400 pages, and includes photographs, notes and a bibliography. The work is based on interviews with Stigler and Brown more than 50 years after the incident.Ī Higher Call: An Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of World War II was written by military historian Adam Makos with military writer Larry Alexander and published in 2012 by Berkley Books. In it, Franz Stigler, a German Luftwaffe fighter ace flying a Messerschmitt Bf 109, guided a severely damaged American Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress out of German airspace after failing to persuade it to surrender, an act of chivalry. It recounts the story of the Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler incident of 1943, which took place in the skies of Germany during the Second World War. It would have been the same as shooting at a man in a parachute.A Higher Call is a non-fiction book by Adam Makos with Larry Alexander, published in 2012 by Berkley Books. They were trying desperately to get home and I was going to let them do that. When asked why he didn’t shoot them down, Stigler later said, “I didn’t have the heart to finish those brave men. They met in the USA at a 379th Bomber Group reunion, together with 25 people who were alive – all because Franz never fired his guns that day. He had never talked about the incident, not even at post-war reunions. More than 40 years later, Charlie Brown wanted to find the Luftwaffe pilot who saved the crew and after years of research, Franz was found. Charlie Brown and the remains of his crew on the other hand, told all at their de-briefing, but were ordered never to talk about it. When Franz landed, he told the CO that the plane had been shot down over the sea and he never told the truth to anybody. He then saluted Charlie Brown and turned away, back to his base. ![]() Franz then escorted and guided the stricken plane to, and slightly over, the North Sea towards England. Brown was scared, as he struggling to control his damaged and bloodstained plane.Īware that Charlie had no idea where he was headed, Franz waved at him to turn 180 degrees. The nose of the plane was smashed and there were holes everywhere.ĭespite having ammunition, Franz flew to the side of the B-17 and looked at Charlie Brown, the pilot. The top gunner was dead, with his remains spread all over the top of the fuselage. The tail and rear section was severely damaged, and the tail gunner wounded. In his words, he ‘had never seen a plane in such a bad state’. When the B-17 flew over an enemy airfield, a German pilot named Franz Steigler was ordered to take off and shoot down the B-17, but when he got airborne and closed on the B-17, he could not believe his eyes. The compass was damaged and they were flying deeper over enemy territory, instead of heading home to Kimbolton. ![]() His B-17 was called ‘Ye Old Pub’ and was in a terrible state, having been hit by flak and fighters. Then realize that there is a German ME-109 fighter flying next to it.Ĭharlie Brown was a B-17 Flying Fortress pilot with the 379th Bomber Group at Kimbolton, England. Look carefully at the B-17 and note how shot up it is – one engine dead, tail, horizontal stabilizer and nose shot up. ![]() The painting below was by an artist and based on the description of both pilots in this story, many years later. I add it here because it’s a great story. The whole story is on the video link below the text.
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