The day a chivalrous German flying ace saluted a crippled US bomber and let it escape

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Incredibly heartwarming story from the Second World War.

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The bombing mission targeting a German munitions factory had been a success, but Second World War pilot Charlie Brown's attempts to get home safely seemed doomed to failure. His B-17F bomber had been attacked by no fewer than 15 planes - leaving one of his crew dead and six wounded; 2nd Lt Brown himself had been knocked out and regained consciousness just in time to right his plane after it went into a dangerous nose dive. But as he tried to return from the raid on Bremen to the safety of Allied territory after the mission on December 20, 1943, the danger was not over. Brown soon had another major concern: a German plane was flying directly next to his own - so close that the pilot was looking him directly in the eyes and making big gestures with his hands that only scared Brown more.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...fely-instead-shooting-down.html#ixzz2Zfqverjq
 
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Re: The day a ch ace saluted a crippled US bomber and let it escape

Aoxomoxoa said:
Incredibly heartwarming story from the Second World War.

article-2245472-166E4C85000005DC-899_634x360.jpg


The bombing mission targeting a German munitions factory had been a success, but Second World War pilot Charlie Brown's attempts to get home safely seemed doomed to failure. His B-17F bomber had been attacked by no fewer than 15 planes - leaving one of his crew dead and six wounded; 2nd Lt Brown himself had been knocked out and regained consciousness just in time to right his plane after it went into a dangerous nose dive. But as he tried to return from the raid on Bremen to the safety of Allied territory after the mission on December 20, 1943, the danger was not over. Brown soon had another major concern: a German plane was flying directly next to his own - so close that the pilot was looking him directly in the eyes and making big gestures with his hands that only scared Brown more.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...fely-instead-shooting-down.html#ixzz2Zfqverjq
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Those bombers weren't precision targeting munitions factories, they were engaged in indiscriminately fire bombing civilian houses. If some kraut had done that to an American city, you bet your ass I'd show him no mercy.
 
Panda Hugger said:
Those bombers weren't precision targeting munitions factories, they were engaged in indiscriminately fire bombing civilian houses. If some kraut had done that to an American city, you bet your ass I'd show him no mercy.
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If they had bombed Mississippi it might have actually improved it.
 
I don't have the time to read this right now but I will. My great Uncle Homer was a Liberator pilot during the war and was shot down over Austria. He was able get his disabled plane down safely and saved his crew but they were all taken as POW's. He very nearly was executed when he was captured after he had excaped but the war was so close to being over that the prison guards were afraid of reprisals so they didn't shoot him. He later wrote a memoir about the experience. It's a fascinating story.

BTW, my Uncle Homer spent most of his career as the director of the Auglaize County, Ohio airport. A very small municipal airport just outside of New Knoxville, Ohio. It's the same airport where Neil Armstrong practiced flying as a teenager and was renamed after him after the moon landing.
 
Panda Hugger said:
Those bombers weren't precision targeting munitions factories, they were engaged in indiscriminately fire bombing civilian houses. If some kraut had done that to an American city, you bet your ass I'd show him no mercy.
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B-17 were never used to drop incindiary bombs in WWII.
 
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