Curiosities 15 - Mercy in War Skies
João Henrique Barboza Jorgetto • Jul 19, 2023
Bomber crew life was not easy in World War II. With a casualty rate per mission approaching 70% in some phases of the war, the Allies had in their bomber units men brave enough to get on a plane believing that they would be part of the other 30% that returned for the next mission. Returning home only after completing 25 missions, a feat achieved by few, unfortunately.
Many of the bombers fell due to attacks by enemy fighters, anti-aircraft artillery and even mechanical failures. The shape of the planes, the gunners' firing positions and the lack of an ejection system condemned a part of the crew of a seriously hit aircraft. To give you an idea, look at the picture below:
One of the B-17's thankless defense positions was the rotating circular turret. It offered a full range of vision but was an easy target for fighters and anti-aircraft shells. If, by a miracle, the gunner was not hit, he still had to count on the expectation of a good landing for his aircraft. Rarely the internal access hatch did not open due to damage from the plane and the gunner was crushed in forced landings. Returning to base with a breakdown was as excruciating as flying under enemy skies.
But not everyone was that unlucky.
It was 1943, the Allied heavy bombing campaign was in full swing, and the then captain of a B-17, a 21-year-old pilot named Charlie Brown, took off with his plane from England intending to bomb a factory of planes in Bremen, Germany. His aircraft reached the target, but not everything went as expected; as soon as they started their return, they were reached by German BF-109 fighters.
One of the gunners was killed in the ensuing engagement, six other crew members were hit, and two engines were destroyed. The pilot was also not immune; he was hit by shrapnel from the fighter's ammunition. He momentarily lost his senses, leaving the aircraft without control, entirely damaged by the Germans. As soon as he recovered his senses, the pilot found himself in a considerable problem: tail hit, two engines destroyed, several holes in the fuselage, crew partially downed and on top of that, a few kilometers away from the base. But we know how it is; nothing can get worse, right? Soon Charlie noticed one more problem: one of the attacking fighters was on his tail, ready to finish the job and shoot down the bomber!
The pilot of this fighter, Franz Stigler, was a pilot with combat experience for the German Luftwaffe, participating in several air campaigns and having significant combat victories. Being able to shoot down Charlie's plane and acquire another victory, Franz preferred to do something unusual, positioning his plane next to the enormous bomber and gesturing, signaling for Charlie to follow him, escorting the damaged B-17 to the limits of airspace under German control.
This story was forgotten for years until Charlie told it at an event for veterans in the US, where he saw his story generate astonishment, laughter and distrust of others, as an act like that in the middle of war was not something common to see. Determined to find the man who had saved his life, Charlie published an ad in magazines aimed at veteran pilots looking for the man who had given him another chance, and to his surprise, he received a call from Franz.
Three years later, the two finally met and Charlie may know the answer to one of his biggest questions: why wasn't he shot down that day? Franz then told him his intention when approaching the B-17 was to bring down the plane, but when he saw the size of the damage to the plane up close, his crew dying and completely without defenses, he imagined that that would not be a victory at all, but an act of cowardice. He decided to help the bomber, guiding it along the shortest route toward England.
Franz was one of the 2,000 German pilots who survived the combat, out of a total of 40,000 men, and died in 2008, six months before Charlie, his grateful friend from the past.