12/6/2023 0 Comments Charlie brown e franz stiglerThe lone Allied bomber was a sitting duck. Miraculously, all but the tailgunner survived. Many of the gunners’ weapons then jammed, probably as a result of loss of the onboard systems leading to frozen mechanisms (the ground crew did not oil the guns correctly), leaving the bomber with only two dorsal turret guns and one of three forward-firing nose guns (from eleven available) for defense. The bomber’s internal oxygen, hydraulic and electrical systems were also damaged, and the bomber lost half of its rudder and its port (left side) elevator, as well as its nose cone. Further damage was sustained, including damage to the number three engine, which would produce only half power (meaning the aircraft had at best 40% of its total rated power available). The damage slowed the bomber and Brown was unable to remain with his formation and fell back as a straggler – a position from which he came under sustained enemy attacks.īrown’s straggling B-17 was now attacked by over a dozen enemy fighters (a mixture of Messerschmitt Bf 109s and Focke-Wulf Fw 190s) for more than 10 minutes. Before the bomber released its bomb load, accurate flak shattered the Plexiglas nose, knocked out the number two engine and further damaged the number four engine, which was already in questionable condition and had to be throttled back to prevent overspeeding. However, since one bomber had to turn back due to mechanical problems, Brown was told to move up to the front of the formation.īrown’s B-17 began its 10-minute bomb run at 27,300 ft with an outside air temperature of −76 ☏. Brown’s crew was assigned to fly “Purple Heart Corner,” a spot on the edge of the formation that was considered especially dangerous because the Germans loved to target the edges instead of shooting straight through the middle of the formation. The men of the 527th Bombardment Squadron were informed in a pre-mission briefing that they might encounter hundreds of German fighters. The mission was the Ye Olde Pub crew’s first and targeted the Focke-Wulf 190 aircraft production facility in Bremen. (In Nazi Germany, the shooting down of a bomber aircraft was worth three points compared to one for a fighter.) B-17 with German escort: An amazing act of wartime mercy Franz Stigler, a former airline pilot from Bavaria, was a veteran Luftwaffe fighter pilot attached to Jagdgeschwader 27 (fighter band 27) at the time, he had 27 victory tallies to his name and would be eligible for the coveted Knight’s Cross with one more downed enemy bomber (the required number of victories was 30). “Charlie” Brown (“a farm boy from Weston, West Virginia”, he said) was a B-17F pilot with the 379th Bombardment Group of the United States Army Air Forces’ (USAAF) 8th Air Force, stationed at RAF Kimbolton in England. After an extensive search by Brown, the two pilots met each other 40 years later and developed a friendship that lasted until Stigler’s death in March 2008.Ģnd Lt Charles L. Luftwaffe pilot Franz Stigler had the opportunity to shoot down the crippled bomber, but did not. The Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler incident occurred on December 20, 1943, when, after a successful bomb run on Bremen, Germany, 2nd Lt Charles “Charlie” Brown’s B-17 Flying Fortress (named “Ye Olde Pub”) was severely damaged by German fighters.
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