Brothers, Heroes, Foes.

Hello and Welcome. Today we have a story of an unordinary code of honour and the bits of humanity in war. Today we tell the story of Franz Stigler and Charles Brown.

“No Bullets Fly” stands out from its counterparts due to its very unusual and unique story. It is set during the Second World War, 1943 to be specific. Near the German city of Bremen an American bomber squadron is making its bombing run.

One of the B-17s in the squadron is heavily damaged by flak gun fire and the pursuing Luftwaffe, losing 2 of its engines, its radio and one of its airmen on top of the heavy damage to the fuselage. It is somehow still flying, but completely defenseless.

The B-17’s commander, Charles Brown, knew they had no chance of getting back to England, the AA guns on the Atlantic Wall will bring them down. He offered to the men under his command the option to bail out as being captured seemed better than death, his crewmen refused.

It is then that Franz Stigler, a german fighter ace, spotted the crippled B-17. He prepared for an attack and as he is about to shoot he notices something unusual. There is no gun fire coming from the bomber, the tail gunner is missing. It is then that Stigler gets closer to the bomber and notices the heavy damaged it has sustained. Stigler had shot down a B-17 the day prior and this kill infront of him was going make him eligible for the “Knight’s Cross”, Germany’s highest award for military valour and honour.

To Stigler there was no honour in shooting down these defenseless men even though he knew their bombs probably killed some of his countrymen. Stigler pulled up next to the bomber and waved to the crew, signaling them to land.

This sent Brown and the rest of the crew into shock, a Bf 109 right on their wing. Brown refused by shaking his head. Stigler knowing they wont survive if he did not help, escorted the bomber to the North Sea. The AA gunners easily recognized their own next to the bomber and did not open fire. Once the bomber had passed the danger zone Stigler saluted his foes and broke off formation, returning to base.

The story was covered up by the Allied High Command and Stigler himself. It took half a century and Brown’s search for the German pilot that had saved their lives on that faithful day for this unbelievable story to get out. By the early 90s Brown and Stigler, who had been living in Canada by then, finally met again in person. Their story taking the world by surprise.

The two men quickly grew to be great friends. They describe their meeting as two brothers finally meeting after more than 40 years.

Stigler up to his death in 2008 got calls from Germany calling him a traitor and some of his Canadian neighbours shunned him as a Nazi. His response to these accusations was always:

“They will never understand”.