Saturday, June 21, 2008

Franz Stigler's Act of Chivalry

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 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'.

Read the whole true story … [h/t: Maggie's Farm]

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's a hell of a story.

People will just amaze you, at times. I think it must have been the Holy Spirit that moved Stigler to behave as he did.

Athos said...

I believe you're right, Tim: whenever our hearts are strangely moved at the plight of a victim in need and we do something without creating new victims, the Paraklete is there. Cheers