I am just reading the book "A higher call" by Adam Makos and this little true story here touched me very much.
So I want to share it with you.
I have translated it from German into English. Sorry if it is therefore a little bumpy at one point or another
B-17 versus Bf 109: Victory of Humanity
Even in the worst conflicts there are always moments of humanity and brotherhood.
So also on December 20th, 1943, on this day the German fighter pilot Franz Stigler should give the coup de grace to a battered B-17.
Four days before Christmas Eve in 1943 the 21-year-old American pilot Charlie Brown was about to fly his first mission with his crew and the B-17F Flying Fortress. In the early morning briefing, the officers were informed of the target of the attack.
The objective was to bomb an armaments factory in Bremen.
At this time the Hanseatic city in the north of Germany resembled a fortress.
Thousands of anti-aircraft guns laid like a deadly belt around the city and the Focke-Wulf factories.
The Flying Fortress with the name "Ye Olde Pub" belonged to the 379th Bomb Group and flew on this fateful day into the battlefield in the front position.
The worst fears came true: The B-17 was shot down by the German Flak and the attacking fighters.
The rudder was half destroyed, an elevator was lost, the bow pulpit was shot and the stern gunner was killed. Six other crew members, including Brown, were wounded.
They still managed to get their bombs to the target, but then an engine failed and it was not possible to keep the formation. The "Pub" sank further and further and lost its connection to the group.
At Jever airfield Franz Stigler was standing next to his 109, which was just being refueled and ammunitioned, when the heavily damaged bomber roared directly over the airfield.
Now it was the hour of the 28-year-old from Regensburg.
He needed to shoot down another plane to receive the Knight's Cross. He jumped into his plane and took up pursuit.
Stigler, who had worked as a pilot for Lufthansa in the 1930s, had only joined the fighter pilots after the tragic death of his brother.
From 1942 he flew in JG 27 - initially in North Africa, where he met Hans-Joachim Marseille, later in Sicily and finally in Germany to defend against the incoming bombers.
Now he was in approach to the B-17, but something was different.
The defensive armament was silent, the rear machine gun hung down and Stigler could see the lifeless body of the gunner in the rear.
The B-17 showed no sign of resistance.
He told later that he had never seen such a badly damaged machine in the air.
So he decided to sit down next to it for a while and observe.
Through the large holes in the fuselage he saw the rest of the crew huddled inside.
Then he recognized the pilot, also wounded, as he struggled to keep the machine in the air.
Stigler, a convinced Christian, reached for his rosary in his inside pocket and thought.
The decision was quickly made.
With a show of hands he tried to persuade the pilot to land. No reaction.
The B-17 flew further towards the North Sea. Then Stigler wanted to bring them on course to Sweden. Again no success.
So the two planes flew side by side for some time.
This circumstance also kept the flak on the ground from finally killing the bomber.
Finally they were over the open sea, and Stigler decided to let the B-17 go.
He looked again over to the pilot - the two men looked at each other, Stigler saluted and turned away.
Charlie Brown brought the plane home.
Stigler flew to Bremen and didn't say a word about the incident, because it would probably have brought him before a firing squad.
The war was over for both pilots, and what happened was forgotten.
It was not until the end of the 1980s that Brown set out in search of the Knight of the Skies.
After an appeal in the "Jägerblatt", which Adolf Galland had advised him to do, Brown actually received a letter from Canada.
In it Stigler described details of the encounter that no one but the people involved could know. It was clear that they had found each other.
A few days later Brown and Stigler met in Washington.
At this meeting they approached each other, nobody said a word.
They held each other in their arms, and I guess that said it all.
Until their death in 2008, they were deeply friends.
They went fishing together, their wives got to know each other, and the two former enemies even called each other "brother".
Let us never forget that we are all human.