'The B-17 War Story: A Gallant Enemy'

I came across this heart-touching World War II story about a year ago. A similar version of this story is also depicted at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon next the B-17 displayed there with another artist's rendering of the B-17 being escorted by the German Bf-109 fighter. The following depicts the story of B-17 pilot Charles Brown and the chivalrous act of Nazi German Bf-109 pilot Franz Steigler:

'Charles Brown was a B-17 Flying Fortress pilot with the 379th Bomber Group at Kimbolton, England. His B-17 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 German pilot named Franz Steigler was ordered to take off and shoot down the B-17. When he got in range of 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 of the aircraft 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, Steigler flew to the side of the B-17 and looked at Charles 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, Steigler waved at Brown to turn 180 degrees. Franz Steigler escorted and guided the stricken plane to and slightly over the North Sea towards England. He then saluted Brown and turned away, back to Europe.

When Steigler landed, he told the C/O that the plane had been shot down over the sea, and never told the truth to anybody. Charles 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, Charles Brown wanted to find the Luftwaffe pilot who saved the crew. After years of research, Franz Steigler was found. He had never talked about the incident, not even at post-war reunions.

They met in the United States, at a 379th Bomber Group reunion, together with 25 people who are alive now - all because Franz never fired his guns that day.'

To me personally, this story really touched my heart. What I love about this story is that two pilots fighting on opposite sides became the best of friends in the end. One interesting thing to note is that if Steigler's commanders had found out about his chivalrous act, he would've most likely faced a death penalty by the German firing squads. He risked even his own life to save some lives, even though those lives were fighting on opposite sides. But this goes to show that Steigler was a different. Even though he was fighting for a country that was depicted as a face of evil at the time, Steigler had his own moral values. The action he displayed in front of Brown and his crew made a lasting impression and therefore, made him a good person.