The Man Who Refused to Shoot the Wounded

On December 20, 1943, over the North Sea near Bremen, Germany, Second Lt. Charles 'Charlie' Brown was flying his B-17 'Ye Olde Pub' back from a bombing mission. His bomber was badly damaged — the tail gunner had been killed, the navigator was dead, the tail was shredded by flak, and two of the four engines were not working. Brown was flying on fumes over enemy territory, barely able to keep the crippled plane aloft. German Lt. Franz Stigler, a highly decorated pilot (21 kills), spotted the damaged B-17 from his Messerschmitt Bf 109 and flew alongside it. Stigler could see the wounded crew through the shattered windows. His commander had once told him before the war: 'I fight soldiers, not children.' Stigler made a split-second decision. He did not shoot. Instead, he escorted the B-17 out of German airspace toward the coast, saluted the crew, and flew away. Had his commanding officer found out, he would have been executed for treason. Charlie Brown later said he was crying behind his oxygen mask. The two men found each other again in 1990 through a veterans' magazine article and remained close friends for 18 years. They died within months of each other in 2008. Brown's family invited Stigler's family to be present when Brown was buried.