![]() Pilot Stigler already had 22 air “victories” to his credit one more and he would earn the coveted Luftwaffe award, the Knight’s Cross. He could afford to take his time in that position, for the tail-guns of the Fortress remained pointed downward during the entire encounter – a sure sign that the gunner was dead or the guns disabled. In no time at all, the German ace settled in on the tattered tail of the bomber and prepared for the kill. At first surprised by the low-flying bomber, Stigler instinctively jumped into the cockpit of his aircraft and took off after the crippled B-17. The tail gunner was hunched dead and bloody behind his downward-facing guns.Īs the B-17 lumbered precariously at low altitude, struggling to make it home back in England, she was spotted passing over a small airfield by a German crew on the ground which was refueling and re-arming the Bf 109 fighter of Franz Stigler. Most of her guns were disabled and some of the crew badly wounded. One of her engines was out, half of her rudder was shot-off, and most of her left horizontal stabilizer (tail) was gone. ![]() Now flying alone over German territory, the B-17 could barely stay aloft. While being harassed in retreat for several minutes by German fighter aircraft, the venerable Flying Fortress suffered considerable additional damage. With its Plexiglas nose-dome shattered and its number two engine disabled, the bomber fell out of formation and became a straggler – an easy target for the swarms of Bf 109 and Focke-Wulf 190 fighters which came up to defend the German target area. As the B-17 was preparing for its bomb-run on the target, German anti-aircraft fire and its exploding shrapnel found the aircraft and quickly left its deadly imprint upon Ye Olde Pub. The target: A German aircraft factory in Bremen, Germany. Pilot Brown and his nine-member crew were flying their very first mission together on that twentieth day of December, 1943. One press of the “fire button” and Ye Olde Pub and its crew of ten would be history – torn apart by 20 mm cannon shells from the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter. Pilot Charles (Charlie) Brown, his crew, and his torn and tattered plane quickly found themselves in the gunsight of German Luftwaffe ace, Franz Stigler. The main characters: A German fighter pilot on the hunt for another “kill” to add to his already burgeoning total and the pilot of a crippled and hapless B-17F “Flying Fortress” bomber, barely able to fly and struggling to reach friendly territory. I post this account as a prime example of the complex human attitudes and emotions exhibited in all-out warfare.Ī sure “kill” is spared: Aviation artwork by John Shaw Almost before that new quest began, a World War II story came to my attention (via a recent Facebook post) which relates a fascinating encounter in the skies over Germany on December 20, 1943. That viewpoint motivates me to read more of the history surrounding the conflict – as I wrote in a recent blog post, here. The immense canvas of World War II serves also as a mirror on the attitudes and behavior of us human beings.
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