HEMI-Powered wrote:

Square Wheels added these comments in the current discussion du
jour ...

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 C/O 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.

Research shows that Charlie Brown lived in Seattle and
Franz Steigler
had moved to Vancouver, BC after the war. When they finally
met, they discovered they had lived less than 200 miles apart
for the past 50 years!

There was at least honor in the way the Germans generally fought
the war, but especially the Luftwaffe, who had the utmost respect
for our Army Air Corps/Force guys, even though they were "blood"
enemies. Likewise, the Americans and Brits were considerate of
even the bomber crews bombing London and other targets more of a
military nature. Completely the opposite was true in the Pacific
with the Japs, and today, there is NO honor to warfare
whatsoever. Worse, the basic premises behind armed conflict
between sovereign nations has been gone for almost 2 decades
since the fall of the USSR and now our brave men and women get
blown up, literally, by real or would-be terrorists. Pretty hard
to target these folks, and we must be ever vigilent with the
"POWs" we capture. Which in turn leads us to the logical
conclusion that the War on Terror coalition simply MUST stop the
very near torture of captured men and women, no matter what
"intelligence" may be gleaned. While not endorsing ANY political
candidates, perhaps John McCain has said it best: if we torture
prisoners for ANY reason, we shouldn't expect human treatment
when our armed forces personnel are captured, certainly not the
kind of treatment Franz gave to Charlie Brown.

--
HP, aka Jerry

like our prisoners received in Korea, Viet Nam, GW 1, and in Iraq?

redc1c4,
just curious.....
--
"Enlisted men are stupid, but extremely cunning and sly, and bear
considerable watching."

Army Officer's Guide