brad kaste
Charter Member
Hi All,
I'm sure most of you are familiar with the true story of a German ace pilot, Franz Stigler, who took mercy on a crippled B-17 bomber, piloted by Charlie Brown,...as it tried to fly back to England after it's horrendous first mission. This 'incident' is now in book form written by Adam Makos. I wasn't too sure if I wanted to pick the book up since this haunting encounter has been played over and over. Boy, was I wrong!
Actually,...where Stigler escorts Brown's bomber out to the ocean is just a very small part of the story. Main emphasis is put on Stigler and his growing up in the 1930's Germany . From flying commercial aircraft before the war to dog fighting in ME 109's over North Africa and Sicily. The author Adam Makos wonderfully reconstructs the miserable living conditions he flew in,...plus meeting other German aces such as Marseille and Galland. And dealing with the political corruption and intrigue of Hermann Goering and other Nazi higher-ups.
I give this book a thumbs up and four stars**** (four not being able to put it down!
)
A review:
Five days before Christmas 1943, a badly damaged American bomber struggled to fly over wartime Germany. At its controls was a twenty-one-year-old pilot. Half his crew lay wounded or dead. It was their first mission. Suddenly, a sleek, dark shape pulled up on the bomber's tail—a German Messerschmitt fighter. Worse, the German pilot was an ace, a man able to destroy the American bomber in the squeeze of a trigger. What happened next would defy imagination and later be called 'the most incredible encounter between enemies in World War II.' This is the true story of the two pilots whose lives collided in the skies that day: the American—Second Lieutenant Charlie Brown, a former farm boy from West Virginia who came to captain a B-17—and the German—Second Lieutenant Franz Stigler, a former airline pilot from Bavaria who sought to avoid fighting in World War II. A Higher Call follows both Charlie and Franz's harrowing missions. Charlie would face takeoffs in English fog over the flaming wreckage of his buddies' planes, flak bursts so close they would light his cockpit, and packs of enemy fighters that would circle his plane like sharks. Franz would face sandstorms in the desert, a crash alone at sea, and the spectacle of 1,000 bombers each with eleven guns, waiting for his attack. Ultimately, Charlie and Franz would stare across the frozen skies at one another. What happened between them, the American 8th Air Force would later classify as 'top secret.' It was an act that Franz could never mention or else face a firing squad. It was the encounter that would haunt both Charlie and Franz for forty years until, as old men, they would search for one another, a last mission that could change their lives forever.
I'm sure most of you are familiar with the true story of a German ace pilot, Franz Stigler, who took mercy on a crippled B-17 bomber, piloted by Charlie Brown,...as it tried to fly back to England after it's horrendous first mission. This 'incident' is now in book form written by Adam Makos. I wasn't too sure if I wanted to pick the book up since this haunting encounter has been played over and over. Boy, was I wrong!
Actually,...where Stigler escorts Brown's bomber out to the ocean is just a very small part of the story. Main emphasis is put on Stigler and his growing up in the 1930's Germany . From flying commercial aircraft before the war to dog fighting in ME 109's over North Africa and Sicily. The author Adam Makos wonderfully reconstructs the miserable living conditions he flew in,...plus meeting other German aces such as Marseille and Galland. And dealing with the political corruption and intrigue of Hermann Goering and other Nazi higher-ups.
I give this book a thumbs up and four stars**** (four not being able to put it down!
)A review:
Five days before Christmas 1943, a badly damaged American bomber struggled to fly over wartime Germany. At its controls was a twenty-one-year-old pilot. Half his crew lay wounded or dead. It was their first mission. Suddenly, a sleek, dark shape pulled up on the bomber's tail—a German Messerschmitt fighter. Worse, the German pilot was an ace, a man able to destroy the American bomber in the squeeze of a trigger. What happened next would defy imagination and later be called 'the most incredible encounter between enemies in World War II.' This is the true story of the two pilots whose lives collided in the skies that day: the American—Second Lieutenant Charlie Brown, a former farm boy from West Virginia who came to captain a B-17—and the German—Second Lieutenant Franz Stigler, a former airline pilot from Bavaria who sought to avoid fighting in World War II. A Higher Call follows both Charlie and Franz's harrowing missions. Charlie would face takeoffs in English fog over the flaming wreckage of his buddies' planes, flak bursts so close they would light his cockpit, and packs of enemy fighters that would circle his plane like sharks. Franz would face sandstorms in the desert, a crash alone at sea, and the spectacle of 1,000 bombers each with eleven guns, waiting for his attack. Ultimately, Charlie and Franz would stare across the frozen skies at one another. What happened between them, the American 8th Air Force would later classify as 'top secret.' It was an act that Franz could never mention or else face a firing squad. It was the encounter that would haunt both Charlie and Franz for forty years until, as old men, they would search for one another, a last mission that could change their lives forever.
Dad paid for it :salute: