It’s almost Christmas. We celebrate the birth of Christ, but we also
celebrate the spirit of compassion that
is an integral part of the season. In the current climate of divided loyalties,
values, and agendas, it’s important to remember our common humanity. After all,
we live on this planet together.
The following selection is a true story about two enemies: pilots
Franz Stigler and Charlie Brown. They forged an unbreakable bond during World
War II. It’s a little longer than my
usual posts, yet it is definitely worth your time! The full story is told in the book, A Higher Call. The footage of their
first meeting following the war can be found here.
The 21-year old American B-17 pilot glanced outside
his cockpit and froze. He blinked hard
and looked again, hoping it was just a mirage. But his Co-Pilot stared at the
same horrible vision. "My God, this
is a nightmare," the Co-Pilot said.
"He's going to destroy us," the Pilot
agreed.
The men were looking at a gray German Messerschmitt
fighter hovering just three feet off their wingtip. It was five days before Christmas1943, and
the fighter had closed in on their crippled American B-17 bomber for the kill.
Brown's Crippled B-17 Stalked by Stigler's ME-109
The B-17
Pilot, Charles Brown, was a 21-year-old West Virginia farm boy on his first
combat mission. His bomber had been shot
to pieces by swarming fighters, and his plane was alone, struggling to stay in
the skies above Germany. Half his crew was wounded, and the tail gunner was
dead, his blood frozen in icicles over the machine guns.
But when Brown and his Co-Pilot, Spencer
"Pinky" Luke, looked at the Fighter Pilot again, something odd
happened. The German didn't pull the trigger. He stared back at the bomber in
amazement and respect. Instead of pressing the attack, he nodded at Brown and
saluted. What happened next was one of the most remarkable acts of chivalry
recorded during World War Il.
Luftwaffe Major Franz Stigler
Stigler pressed his hand over the rosary he kept in
his flight jacket. He eased his index
finger off the trigger. He couldn't
shoot. It would be murder.
Stigler wasn't just motivated by vengeance that day.
He also lived by a code. He could trace
his Family's Ancestry to Knights in 16th Century Europe. He had once studied to be a Priest. A German Pilot who spared the enemy, though,
risked death in Nazi Germany. If someone
reported him, he would be executed.
Yet, Stigler could also hear the voice of his
commanding officer, who once told him:
"You follow the rules of war for you -- not your enemy. You fight
by rules to keep your humanity."
Alone with the crippled bomber, Stigler changed his
mission. He nodded at the American Pilot and began flying in formation so
German anti-aircraft gunners on the ground wouldn't shoot down the slow-moving
bomber. (The Luftwaffe had B-17's of its own, shot down and rebuilt for secret
missions and training.) Stigler escorted
the bomber over the North Sea and took one last look at the American
Pilot. Then he saluted him, peeled his
fighter away and returned to Germany.
"Good luck," Stigler said to himself. "You're in God's hands now..." Franz Stigler didn't think the big B-17 could
make it back to England and wondered for years what happened to the American
Pilot and crew he encountered in combat.
As he watched
the German fighter peel away that December day, 2nd Lt. Charles Brown wasn't
thinking of the philosophical connection between enemies. He was thinking of survival. He flew his crippled plane, filled with
wounded, back to his base in England and landed with one of four engines
knocked out, one failing and barely any fuel left. After his bomber came to a stop, he leaned
back in his chair and put a hand over a pocket Bible he kept in his flight
jacket. Then he sat in silence.
Brown flew more missions before the war ended. Life
moved on. He got married, had two
Daughters, supervised foreign aid for the U.S. State Department during the
Vietnam War and eventually retired to Florida.
Late in life, though, the encounter with the German
Pilot began to gnaw at him. He started
having nightmares, but in his dream there would be no act of mercy. He would awaken just before his bomber
crashed.
Brown took on a new mission. He had to find that German Pilot. Who was he?
Why did he save my life? He scoured
Military Archives in the U.S. and England.
He attended a Pilots' Reunion and shared his story. He finally placed an ad in a German
Newsletter for former Luftwaffe Pilots, retelling the story and asking if
anyone knew the Pilot.
On January 18, 1990, Brown received a letter. He
opened it and read: "Dear Charles,
All these years I wondered what happened to that B-17, did she make it
home? Did her crew survive their
wounds? To hear of your survival has
filled me with indescribable joy..."
It was Stigler.
He had left Germany after the war and moved to
Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1953. He
became a prosperous Businessman. Now
retired, Stigler told Brown that he would be in Florida come summer and
"it sure would be nice to talk about our encounter." Brown was so excited, though, that he
couldn't wait to see Stigler. He called
Directory Assistance for Vancouver and asked whether there was a number for a
Franz Stigler. He dialed the number, and
Stigler picked up.
"My God, it's you!" Brown shouted as tears ran down his cheeks.
Brown had to do more. He wrote a letter to Stigler
in which he said: "To say THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU on behalf of my
surviving crew members and their families appears totally inadequate."
The two Pilots would meet again, but this time in
person, in the lobby of a Florida hotel.
One of Brown's Friends was there to record the Summer Reunion. Both men looked like retired
businessmen: they were plump, sporting
neat ties and formal shirts. They fell into each other's arms and wept and
laughed. They talked about their
encounter in a light, jovial tone.
The mood then changed. Someone asked Stigler what he thought about
Brown. Stigler sighed and his square jaw
tightened. He began to fight back tears
before he said in heavily accented English: "I love you, Charlie."
Stigler had lost his Brother, his Friends and his
Country. He was virtually exiled by his
Countrymen after the war. There were
28,000 Pilots who fought for the German
Luftwaffe. Only 1,200 survived.
The war cost
him everything. Charlie Brown was the
only good thing that came out of World War II for Franz. It was the one thing he could be proud
of. The meeting helped Brown as well,
says his oldest daughter, Dawn Warner.
They met as enemies but Franz Stigler and
Charles Brown ended up as fishing buddies.
Brown and Stigler became pals. They would take
fishing trips together. They would fly cross-country to each other homes and
take road trips together to share their story at schools and Veterans'
Reunions. Their Wives, Jackie Brown and Hiya Stigler, became Friends.
Brown's Daughter says her Father would worry about
Stigler's health and constantly check in on him.
"It wasn't just for show," she says.
"They really did feel for each other. They talked about once a
week." As his friendship with
Stigler deepened, something else happened to her father, Warner says "The
nightmares went away."
Brown had written a letter of thanks to Stigler, but
one day, he showed the extent of his gratitude.
He organized a reunion of his surviving crew members, along with their
extended families. He invited Stigler as
a Guest of Honor.
During the Reunion, a video was played showing all
the faces of the people that now lived -- Children, Grandchildren, Relatives --
because of Stigler's act of Chivalry.
Stigler watched the film from his Seat of Honor.
"Everybody was crying, not just him,"
Warner says.
Stigler and Brown died within months of each other
in 2008. Stigler was 92, and Brown was
87. They had started off as Enemies,
became Friends, and then something more.
After he died, Warner was searching through Brown's
library when she came across a book on German fighter jets. Stigler had given
the book to Brown. Both were country boys who loved to read about planes.
Warner opened the book and saw an inscription
Stigler had written to Brown:
In 1940, I lost my only brother as a night fighter.
On the 20th of December, 4 days before Christmas, I had the chance to save a
B-17 from her destruction, a plane so badly damaged it was a wonder that she
was still flying.
The Pilot, Charlie Brown, is for me as precious as
my Brother was.
Thanks Charlie.
Your Brother, Franz
