A non-What If model this time, but something about an event that took place on this day 80 years ago and two pilots that should be remembered today: Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler.

It's the 20th of December 1943 when the 379th Bomb Group attacked the Focke-Wulf plant near Bremen. One of the B-17s was the "Ye Olde Pub" with 2nD Lt. Charlie Brown (yes, this was his name) as the pilot.

During the attack, the aircraft was severely damaged by anti-aircraft fire. One of the four engines failed, another was damaged, so that the aircraft could no longer maintain speed and altitude with the remaining two engines and fell behind the formation. This made the bomber an easy target for German fighters. They severely damaged the B-17. The tail gunner was killed and almost all the other crew members were seriously wounded. Brown was wounded in the shoulder and was temporarily unconscious due to the damaged oxygen supply.

On the ground, the German Fighter Pilot Franz Stigler noticed the very low-flying bomber. He was standing next to his Bf 109 at Jever airbase (near Oldenburg) while the aircraft was being refueled and reloaded with ammunition. He immediately climbed into his Messerschmitt, took off and followed the bomber. At this point, he had already achieved 29 aerial victories, one more short of the Knight's Cross.

He approached the bomber from behind, out of the rear gunner's line of fire, but was surprised that the defensive fire failed to materialize. Then he recognized the damage: one wing was shot through, one elevator was shot away and the second was damaged. He recognized the tail gunner in the glass cockpit - slumped over and lifeless. The fuselage was partially torn open. Through the large holes, he saw the rest of the crew huddled together inside. Then he recognized the pilot, also wounded, struggling to keep the plane in the air. Stigler did not attack the plane, because the crew's situation was comparable to that of crew members who had bailed out. Their killing was considered dishonorable in aviation circles, by friend and foe alike.

Instead, he flew in close formation alongside the enemy aircraft, making eye contact with the pilot Brown. He knew that his behavior could be punished with death as treason. He therefore tried to persuade the Americans to land with hand signals, but this was not understood or rejected by Charlie Brown. Stigler's idea that the bomber could land in nearby and neutral Sweden was also not conveyed to the enemy pilot.

The bomber would have been shot down by the powerful German anti-aircraft guns on the coast at the latest. But because of the close formation flight with a German aircraft, the B-17 enjoyed a kind of protected status. The Luftwaffe also used captured aircraft, and such a joint flight of a Bf 109 with a B-17 seemed unusual to the anti-aircraft gunners on the ground, but not completely absurd.

In the meantime, pilot Brown, still suspicious of the situation, had a machine gun trained on Stigler's Bf 109. When both aircraft had reached the open North Sea and were out of flak range, Stigler saluted Brown, pulled his aircraft up, turned and landed at Bremen-Neuenlanderfeld airbase. Ye Olde Pub made it to Norfolk with the last of her strength.

Brown immediately reported the incident to his superior and was sworn to secrecy. Stigler remained silent, telling only his wife about the encounter. It was not until the summer of 1990 that he informed his former Commodore Adolf Galland. His reaction: "That looks like you."

After the war, Brown started to search for the German pilot who saved his life in 1943, but with the help of Adolf Galland, his search was published in a magazine of the former German fighter pilots.
Stigler, now living in Canada, read about this search and contacted Brown in 1990 when they  first meet in person.

Both pilots got friends until their death in 2008.

There is a book called "A higher call" by Adam Marcos about the two pilots and it is recommended to read.

And finally, there is a song about those events by Sabaton (who else), with a great animated story video and which should be seen to the end to get the whole story.