German 109 Escorts B-17 Home

[SectorNine50]

Pretty cool story, not sure if it's well known or not, but I thought it was worth sharing:

http://www.snopes.com/military/charliebrown.asp

[Spikes]

IT's been posted here a few times, amazing read.

[Nilsen]

new story to me.. thx 

[oakranger]

I would have done the same thing. 

What are the odds for them two living so close from each other yet not knowing about it.    to Franz Stigler for being a human.

[oakranger]

I just read more about Franz Stigler.  He started with a 109f, 109g-6 and 109k.  He also flew a 262, and up in a capture Hurrican and Spit.  He was with JG-27 in Africa and JV44 (262 "WHITE 3")

He survived the war having flown over 500 combat missions, was shot down 17 times, captured once briefly and had 28 confirmed victories to his credit, including 11 four-engine bombers, plus over 30 other “probables”. he was decorated with the Iron Cross 2nd Class, the Iron Cross 1st Class, and the German Cross in Gold.

The day he escort that B-17, he shot down 2 other B-17 earlyer. 

[Serenity]

.

[Angus]

From the other side, - an allied airman after shooting down a He-111 over the med:
"I felt a great elation over this victory, and my pleasure was no less when I observed four parachutes hanging in the air below, and a small warship on the sea heading towards us. These airmen had put up a good fight and, although they were the enemy, I was glad to see that they had survived. I flew slowly past the top parachute and saw the airman wave to me"

I should be able to dig up the date and location, - would be interesting to compare with LW losses that day.

Anyway, an interesting article.

[Die Hard]

I was saddened to see that both Stigler and Brown passed away last year.

 

[crazyivan]

Thats true Chuck Norris. Franzz

[fd ski]

Both of those gents were at Warbirds con back in 2000 or 1999 in Raleigh NC. Col Gabreski was there too. They sure had some excellent stories.
Over 300 pilots, it was the highest point of conventions up to date. I'll see if i can dig up some pictures...

[SectorNine50]

From the other side, - an allied airman after shooting down a He-111 over the med:
"I felt a great elation over this victory, and my pleasure was no less when I observed four parachutes hanging in the air below, and a small warship on the sea heading towards us. These airmen had put up a good fight and, although they were the enemy, I was glad to see that they had survived. I flew slowly past the top parachute and saw the airman wave to me"

I should be able to dig up the date and location, - would be interesting to compare with LW losses that day.

Anyway, an interesting article.

Out of curiosity, do you happen to have a link to the story from the quote above?  I like reading these stories.

[Bark0]

Search the Il2 Movie "Not My Time to die" About Robert Johnson.

Not a whole lot of people Fight With Honor in game (NOT going into this again)


Long movie, Big download but its worth the watch. I was in tears at the end. 


Good read

[Selino631]

great story

[Reaper90]

 

[fd ski]

Found the promised pictures.

Raleigh con was in 2000. Guests of honor - Francis "Gabby" Gabreski, Franz Stiegler and Charlie Brown (in picture as listed)



They told the story to auditorium of 300+ virtual pilots



Here they are with their wives - probably during Gabby's speech. He sure told us we were one screwed up generation But stories after that made 20 minutes of preaching worth it.


And here is Gabby, who as a proper roman catholic needed to get to proper roman catholic mass on sunday. Since our squadron was hosting him, we drove around NC for quite a while looking for one We did succeed in the end.



And our squadron with our guest Gabby.



I can't believe that was 15 years ago...