# The story of this B-17 worth a read



## squatting dog (Nov 29, 2019)

Amazing is all I can say.  
Charlie Brown was a B-17 Flying Fortress pilot with the 379th Bomber Group at Kimbolton ,
England . His B-17 was called 'Ye Old Pub' and was in a terrible state, having been hit by
flak and fighters. The compass was damaged and they were flying deeper over enemy territory
instead of heading home to Kimbolton.

After flying over an enemy airfield, a German pilot named Franz Steigler was ordered to take
off and shoot down the B-17. When he got near the B-17, he could not believe his eyes. In his
words, he 'had never seen a plane in such a bad state'. The tail and rear section was severely
damaged, and the tail gunner wounded. The top gunner was all over the top of the fuselage!
The nose was smashed and there were holes everywhere .

Despite having ammunition, Franz flew to the side of the B-17 and looked at Charlie Brown, the
pilot. Brown was scared and struggling to control his damaged and blood-stained plane.

Aware that they had no idea where they were going, Franz waved at Charlie to turn 180 degrees.
Franz escorted and guided the stricken plane to, and slightly over, the North Sea towards 
England . He then saluted Charlie Brown and turned away, back to  Europe  .

When Franz landed he told the CO that the plane had been shot down over the sea, and never
told the truth to anybody. Charlie Brown and the remains of his crew told all at their briefing,
but were ordered never to talk about it.

More than 40 years later, Charlie Brown wanted to find the Luftwaffe pilot who saved the crew.
After years of research, Franz was found. He had never talked about the incident, not even at
post-war reunions.

They met in the USA at a 379th Bomber Group reunion, together with 25 people who are alive
now - all because Franz never fired his guns that day.


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## Pappy (Nov 29, 2019)

A great plane, the Flying Fortress. There may be some pilots on the forum that flew one.


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## george-alfred (Nov 29, 2019)

*I was raised near the us airbase at Burtonwood uk and saw many planes flying over our house 
1950 onwards,we were also picked up by the airmen and taken from our village for the 4th july open day--happy days*


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## fmdog44 (Nov 29, 2019)

squatting dog: Thanks for that post!!


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## rgp (Nov 29, 2019)

+1 on the thanks for posting.......

My ex father-in-law was a waist gunner on a B-17,as well stationed in England. @ one time I knew where, but have since forgotten. He bragged big time on what a remarkable plane it was. He never 'bragged' about his heroics , [if there were any] but he did tell of a time when his plane was badly shot up, and he & the rest of the crew held their breath on the flight back to base.

He was Sargent Richard Beebe , he and his crew flew 28 missions.


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## TravelinMan (Nov 29, 2019)

Here's the story:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Brown_and_Franz_Stigler_incident


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## squatting dog (Nov 29, 2019)

Just seeing some of the damage these things sustained and still flew is just unbelievable. True hero's.


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## old medic (Dec 17, 2019)

I transported a B-17 crew member a few weeks ago... 98, Dementia,  But once he got talking about those days...
he was 23 again...


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