The Air Truce of December 20, 1943: Franz Stigler's Act of Mercy

German Luftwaffe pilot Leutnant Franz Stigler spotted a badly damaged American B-17 bomber named 'Ye Olde Pub,' piloted by 2nd Lt. Charles 'Charlie' Brown, limping across the North Sea on the way back from a bombing raid over Bremen. The B-17 had lost an engine, its tail gun, its navigator had been killed, the tail gunner was wounded, and most of its defensive capability was gone. Stigler flew alongside and could have easily destroyed it — it was the easiest kill of his career. Instead, recalling his own commander's pre-war teaching that 'I fight soldiers, not children,' Stigler decided he could not shoot the wounded bomber. He escorted it out of German airspace, saluted the crew, and flew away. The American pilot later said he was crying behind his oxygen mask. Had Stigler's own command learned of this, he would likely have been executed for treason. The two men found each other again in 1990 and remained close friends until both died within months of each other in 2008.