AMAZING TRUE STORY RE: WW2 B-17 Bomber

[Mr Grumpy]

"This just shows that there was some sort of compassion in WWII
Charlie Brown was a B-17 Flying Fortress pilot with the 379th Bomber Group at Kimbolton, England. His B-17 was called 'Ye Old Pub' and was in a terrible state, having been hit by flak and fighters. The compass was
damaged and they were flying deeper over enemy territory instead of
heading home to Kimbolton.
After flying over an enemy airfield, a pilot named Franz Steigler was
ordered to take off and shoot down the B-17. When he got near the B-17, he could not believe his eyes. In his words, he 'had never seen a plane in such a bad state'. The tail and rear section was severely damaged, and the tail gunner wounded. The top gunner was all over the top of the fuselage.
The nose was smashed and there were holes everywhere.
Despite having ammunition, Franz flew to the side of the B-17 and looked
at Charlie Brown, the pilot. Brown was scared and struggling to control
his damaged and blood-stained plane.


Aware that they had no idea where they were going, Franz waved at Charlie to turn 180 degrees. Franz escorted and guided the stricken plane to and slightly over the North Sea towards England. He then saluted Charlie Brown and turned away, back to Europe.
When Franz landed he told the c/o that the plane had been shot down over the sea, and never told the truth to anybody. Charlie Brown and the
remains of his crew told all at their briefing, but were ordered never to
talk about it.
More than 40 years later, Charlie Brown wanted to find the Luftwaffe pilot who saved the crew. After years of research, Franz was found. He had never talked about the incident, not even at post-war reunions.
They met in the USA at a 379th Bomber Group reunion, together with 25
people who are alive now - all because Franz never fired his guns that
day ?
Research shows that Charlie Brown lived in Seattle and Franz Steigler had moved to Vancouver, BC after the war. When they finally met, they
discovered they had lived less than 200 miles apart for the past 50
years!!"

This story is so amazing i had to check it out and posted on the 379th BG forum and sure enough it is...........
I have a special interest in this as i live only half a mile from the old Kimbolton airfield and have walked over it many times. :)

[Copper]

Great story. If it was me though I would have shot the bugger down. Heartless or what?

[Mr Grumpy]

So would have 9999 out of 10000 German fighter pilots IMO.

[taffy]

there was a similar Bob story.
the link below is to A more tragic b17 story
http://www.geocities.com/milphotos/sheffield1.html

[Mike Abberton]

[Liebchen]

I don't blame Steigler for never telling his story. His squadron mates would have been truly pissed off at him, and he might have been tried for treason.

The bomber may have been history, but the crew was certainly coming back for more.

I wonder how many German pilots the crew of that B-17 shot down or killed?

I wonder how many bombs they later dropped on German cities?

If it had been me, I would have directed them to land at a German airfield.