A Higher Call, Franz Stigler and Charlie Brown, and the Crippled B Seventeen a German Ace Escorted Out to Sea Instead of Shooting It Down

On December 20, 1943, a German fighter ace named Franz Stigler flew alongside a shot-to-pieces American B-17 bomber over Germany - and instead of firing the shot that would have earned him his nation’s highest honor, he escorted the wounded aircraft safely out to the North Sea. The bomber’s pilot, Second Lieutenant Charlie Brown, survived the war and spent decades searching for the enemy who spared him. When the two men finally reunited in 1990, they became lifelong friends. The story is told in full in the book A Higher Call by Adam Makos and Larry Alexander.

What happened over Germany on December 20, 1943?

In the winter of 1943, the U.S. Eighth Air Force was flying daylight bombing raids deep into Germany without long-range fighter escort. The losses were catastrophic. A young airman climbing into a B-17 Flying Fortress that winter faced some of the worst survival odds of the entire war.

The target that morning was Bremen, an aircraft components factory in northern Germany ringed by hundreds of flak guns. Leading one of the bombers on his first combat mission as an aircraft commander was 21-year-old Charlie Brown, a West Virginia farm boy. His aircraft was a B-17F nicknamed Ye Olde Pub.

At 27,000 feet, the conditions inside the bomber were brutal: roughly 60 degrees below zero, no meaningful heat, and crewmen breathing bottled oxygen through masks that froze to their faces.

Why was the B-17 “Ye Olde Pub” left defenseless?

Before the bomber even reached the target, a burst of flak shattered the plexiglass nose and knocked out the number two engine, while a second engine was damaged and could no longer make full power. Unable to keep pace, Brown’s aircraft fell behind the formation and became a lone straggler - exactly what German fighters hunted.

For roughly ten minutes, more than a dozen German fighters - Messerschmitt Bf 109s and Focke-Wulf Fw 190s - attacked from every angle. One by one, the bomber’s guns fell silent from freezing, empty ammunition, and wounded gunners.

By the time the attack ended, the damage was staggering:

• Half the rudder was gone and the nose was blown open to the wind.
• One engine was dead and another was failing.
• The oxygen, hydraulic, and electrical systems were shot up, with a hole in the fuselage large enough to climb through.
• One crewman was dead, six were wounded, and the tail gunner, Hugh Eckenrode, had been killed.

Charlie Brown himself was wounded and had briefly blacked out after a hit sent the aircraft spiraling before he recovered and leveled off. By every rule of aerodynamics and war, the plane should not have still been flying.

Who was Franz Stigler and why didn’t he shoot?

Franz Stigler was one of Germany’s most experienced fighter pilots - a former airline pilot and an ace many times over, flying the Messerschmitt Bf 109. He was one confirmed kill away from earning the Knight’s Cross, the highest honor a German airman could receive.

Refueling and rearming on the ground, Stigler watched the crippled Fortress stagger overhead, low and slow. He took off after what looked like an easy kill - the one victory he needed.

But as he pulled in close behind Ye Olde Pub, he saw straight through the gaping holes in the fuselage: the wounded crew tending to one another, and the tail gunner slumped and still. Stigler recalled the words of a former commander who had warned his pilots that shooting a defenseless man - like an airman in a parachute - was something he would personally punish with death.

Stigler decided the crippled bomber was the same thing. The men were already out of the fight, and he chose not only to spare them, but to help them - a decision that could have gotten him court-martialed or executed for treason.

How did Stigler get the bomber out of Germany?

Looking out his left window, Charlie Brown was stunned to see a Messerschmitt flying formation just off his wingtip - guns silent. Stigler tried to signal Brown to land in Germany and surrender, then gestured toward neutral Sweden, convinced the bomber would never survive the crossing to England. Brown, unable or unwilling to understand, kept flying west toward home.

So Stigler made his final choice. He tucked in on the bomber’s wing and escorted it past the German coastal flak batteries, where gunners on the ground held their fire, assuming one of their own pilots had the situation handled.

When they reached the open water of the North Sea and the bomber was finally clear of Germany, Stigler gave Brown a salute, peeled off, and flew home. He told no one what he had done - it would have cost him his life.

What happened to Charlie Brown and the crew?

Ye Olde Pub dragged itself across the North Sea on roughly two and a half engines and landed in England. Every man still aboard survived except the two who had already been lost. Charlie Brown went on to fly more missions, returned to America, and raised a family - but he never forgot the German who chose not to shoot.

How did Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler reunite?

In 1990, Brown began writing to combat pilot associations, veterans’ groups, and newsletters, describing the encounter in hopes of finding the pilot who had spared him. That same year, a letter arrived from Canada, where Stigler had emigrated years earlier. In effect, it said: I was the one.

For nearly 47 years, each man had carried half of the same story - Brown wondering who had spared him, Stigler wondering whether the crew had survived. The two former enemies met, talked, and became the closest of friends for the rest of their lives, traveling and speaking together. Brown described Stigler as being like a brother.

Both men died in 2008, just months apart - leaving the world almost together after finding each other so late in life.

Key Takeaways

• On December 20, 1943, German ace Franz Stigler spared and escorted a crippled B-17, Ye Olde Pub, piloted by Charlie Brown, instead of shooting it down.
• Stigler gave up a certain kill that would have earned him the Knight’s Cross, and risked court-martial or execution, because he saw the defenseless crew as men already out of the fight.
• The bomber survived a North Sea crossing on failing engines; all aboard lived except the two crewmen already killed, including tail gunner Hugh Eckenrode.
• The two men reunited in 1990, became lifelong friends, and both died in 2008 within months of each other.
• The full account is documented in A Higher Call by Adam Makos and Larry Alexander.