Bf 109 pilot Franz Stigler and B-17 pilot Charlie Brown's first meeting

CW5 Jack Cardwell I remember this story.

This is an incredible tale of compassion in war. It is what legends are made of. The B-17 crew had it stacked against them in a wounded bomber. The Army Air Force lost 4,750 B-17s in Europe. But this is a story of sometimes warriors respect the enemy.

The Army Air Force gave a quota of 25 bombing missions to qualify the crew to be sent to the US. However, that feat was quite improbable considering how many bombers were shot down. The Army Air Force made the mistake of developing a doctrine of unescorted bombers because they thought bombers could protect themselves. It were absolute wrong. German fighters took a heavy toll on our bombers. Our bomber crews dreaded each and every mission because there was a good chance they would not live another day.

Our bombers were escorted partially to Germany because our fighters did not have the range to fly to Germany and back. When our escort fighters turned around, the German fighters attacked our bombers. The British modified P-51 with the Rolls Royce engine became a Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). It had the range to escort our bombers to Germany and back. The P-51 also gave us great capability in shooting down German planes, first against the fighters attacking our bombers. This started a process of attrition for the Luftwaffe that the Germans would never recover from. This allowed air superiority and our fighters could go on tactical attacks against ground targets. By the end of the war Germany had rows upon rows of new planes but no seasoned pilots to fly them.

Our strategic bombing evolved. The Army Air Force found it difficult to effectively bomb industrial complexes from high altitude bombings and decided hitting cities was much easier. The fire bombers were gruesome. The intense heat created its own weather systems of immense winds and heat. People were burnt to crisp or turned into atoms. Fires made roaring sounds and the flames were white hot. Sometimes underground bunkers became large ovens. Upon learning about firebombers the British where so aghast at the violence and destruction. The fact of the matter is Germany could not beat the industrial capacity of Russia and the US. Case in point is I believe the US largest bombing run against Germany consisted of 1100 bombers. I can not fathom seeing so many bombers at one time. It was a sign that we wanted to and would win the war.

I will close my rambling response and get off my soap box now.

Great read as always Jack!