Prey for Mercy by John Shaw

December 1943... The stricken B-17F Ye Olde Pub of Charles L. Brown and crew nearly met disaster follow- ing a bomb run over Bremen, Germany. Wrestling the Pub out of its death-dive, Brown had no way of know- ing he’d leveled out above a fighter base at which ace Franz Stigler’s Bf-109 had just been refueled & armed. As the American bomber limped overhead, Stigler and crew watched in amazement & excitement as this easy prey would be not only the 2nd B-17 he could claim that day, and add another ‘kill’ to avenge his beloved brother he‘d lost at the start of the war, but also would earn him the coveted Knight’s Cross. It was not to be... Upon pursuing & catching the Americans, Stigler saw the pain & fear on the faces of the helpless B-17 crew. Conscience and a sense of honor overroad his military duty, and at the risk of his own execution, he escorted the wounded plane to the coast and on to safe passage, saluting Brown and his astonished crew. Half a century later the 2 pilots would meet, and the former enemies would develop a friendship so close that Stigler would come to consider Brown to be as the brother he’d lost.

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