"Fly, fighting fair, it's the code of the air
Brothers, heroes, foes"
-"No Bullets Fly", performed by Sabaton, 2014
As I sat down and write this piece, I often ponder to myself: is there any honor in warfare? From raining spears and arrows to the hail of bullets and mortar shells (hell, they even used poison gas at some point), war is often described with few words like "hell", "nightmare", or even worse, "torture." But there are also stories of humanity in the midst of inhumanity. I can easily mention two of them, but with the other story, I elected to keep it until the appropriate time has come. For now, I am going to tell you a story where two fighter pilots met in the aerial battlefield, and subsequently became friends after the war had ended.
I'm going to split this piece into two perspectives. The first one started in the eyes of 2nd Lieutenant Charles L. "Charlie" Brown, who was a farmer's boy from West Virginia turned fighter pilot for the second world war, who was stationed with the 379th Bombardment Group of the US Air Force's 8th Air Force, piloting the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress nicknamed "Ye Olde Pub". The date was 20 December 1943, and Lt. Brown, along with his 10-men crew onboard Ye Olde Pub was tasked with an air raid mission targeting the Focke-Wulf FW 190 aircraft production facility in Bremen. It was the first mission for the crew, and during the pre-mission briefing, the men of the 527th Bombardment Squadron had been informed of a possible encounter by the German fighters. The facility itself was guarded by more than 250 flak guns.
The mission commenced at the altitude of 8.300 m (27.300 ft) with the outside temperature of -60° C (-76° F). Before the bomb load could be released, a flak gun shattered the plexiglass nose, subsequently shutting down engine #2 and damaging engine #4, which was already in a questionable condition. When the command to drop the load came, The B-17 completed the assignment and was ready to head back home, but the damages sustained earlier further slowing the B-17 down, eventually taking it out of formation. With all those damages, the Flying Fortress became susceptible to the enemy attacks. The enemy fighter jets, comprising of combinations between Messerschmitt BF 109s and the aforementioned Focke-Wulf FW 190 further attacked the stricken bomber and Brown for 10 further minutes.
The attacks further crippled the B-17's flying capabilities, as engine #3 was toast, the internal oxygen, hydraulic and electrical systems were damaged, and most of the onboard guns frozen, likely because of the freezing cold temperature. Hell, one of the gunners, tail gunner Sgt. Hugh "Ecky" Eckenrode, was the only casualty onboard, having his head decapitated by a direct hit of a cannon shell, while most of the remaining men onboard are mostly critically wounded. The B-17 was about to hit the ground at one point, but Brown managed to take control of the aircraft and made it airborne again, but with only 40% of its total flight capabilities left.
During their flight back home, another Messerschmitt, this time the BF 109 G-6, trailed behind the bomber. But to the crew's surprise, there was no single shot fired, but instead, the pilot inside the Messerschmitt gestured them to land twice, but due to the fact that Brown didn't understand the gesture, they flew on. The mysterious pilot then brought his jet close to Ye Olde Pub's nose, in order to shield them from any German flak attacks, and escort them out of German airspace safely. Before leaving them, the Messerschmitt pilot saluted them and peel away. Brown managed to land safely at RAF Seething and proceed to inform his officers of a German fighter pilot escorting them out of harm’s way. He was cautioned to not tell this story to another pilot, lest another bomber being spotted by another German aircraft, and instead of being escorted out of danger, they would be turned into pulps of gory mess by the machine guns. The story was kept secret until 1984, where Brown decided to look for the mysterious pilot who saved his life on that fateful day.
The now retired Charlie Brown recalled writing a letter to find out who was the Messerschmitt pilot who escorted him to safety, and he received a letter from Canada, from someone by the name of Stigler. The person in question turned out to be Oberleutnant of the Luftwaffe Franz Stigler. On that day, he, along with several other German troops spotted the wounded B-17 while rearming and refueling at an airbase. He then quickly caught up with Ye Olde Pub, who at this state was only a flying vessel with less-than-optimal power. Stigler, prior to this incident, was an ace on the field, with 27 confirmed kill points, only needed 3 more to qualify for the Knight's Cross (Shooting a B-17 bomber down earns him 3, shooting a fighter plane earns him 1). He could have just ended the aircraft's misery and shot it down along with the crew right then and there, but he instead recalled the words of one of his commanding officers at the Jagdgeschwader 27, Gustav Rödel. During his accounts of that day, he remembered the words from Rödel being "If I ever see or hear of you shooting at a man in a parachute (referring to men who are already defeated in a dogfight and already ejected from their aircraft), I will shoot you myself". And Stigler's judgement of the situation deduced that the men inside the Flying Fortress, with all those damages and injuries, is akin of the man in a parachute. He then took it upon himself to ensure that no matter what, that airplane is not to be shot down. Stigler first motioned Brown to land his stricken plane to a nearby German air base and surrender, but Brown refused. He then signaled Ye Olde Pub to land in neutral Sweden for medical attention, but Brown refused again. He then brought his Messerschmitt close to the port side wing in close formation to shield it from a possible German bombardment. After making sure that they are out from German airspace, Stigler saluted Ye Olde Pub and peel away, never to be seen again. He never got the Knight's Cross, and kept the story to himself, fearing court martial or execution.
After the war has ended, Stigler moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1953 and started a successful business, and Brown retired from government service in 1972, after serving in the air force from 1949 to 1965, and the US State Department Foreign Service. He then resided in Miami, Florida, where he became an inventor. When he got wind of the news about a World War 2 veteran pilot searching about that brave German pilot, he reached out to Charlie Brown and explained his side of the story, confirming everything that Brown needed to hear. The two then finally met in person in 1990, and subsequently became best friends and remained so until their deaths within several months of each other in 2008, with Stigler being the first on 22 March at the age of 92, followed by Brown on 24 November at the age of 86.
It is stories like this that kept reminding us that no matter the conflict, no matter how bad or how terrorizing the war can be, at some point, someone might still have their sense of humanity intact, and not swayed easily to commit more atrocities than it already is. The story of Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler will be forever remembered as the story of one of those times in history, when humanity prevails in the midst of extreme inhumanity, and that there is such a thing as the gentleman's code, which is the principle of live and let live, the unwritten code of trust between two men.
"I was the one."
-Franz Stigler to Charlie Brown over the phone, 1990
No comments:
Post a Comment